


The Meadows of Asphodel

by Genesister (papirini)



Series: The Helvicta Blues [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Complete, Drama, Farting, Fleas, Galra Empire, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rapid Decompression, Rescue, Self-Doubt, Space Physics, Space Pirates, Starvation, canon divergence - post-season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-08 13:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10387995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papirini/pseuds/Genesister
Summary: Deep in the heart of a mysterious enemy's territory, some time after their victory over Zarkon, Lance is on bridge duty. As the vargas of the night cycle slowly crawl by, he thinks back to moments during their sojourn in this sector of space - and ponders his own place on a team without their two strongest members.A small interquel toThe Garden of Heaven.Tags will be added as the work proceeds.This work isCOMPLETE. Enjoy!





	1. Geceleme

Approximately six months had passed since Takashi Shirogane disappeared from the cockpit of the Black Lion.

The silence on the bridge did little justice to the true level of morale on the Castle of Lions. The three remaining Paladins did their best, under the circumstances. It was hard, though, to have to explain to those who called for help that there were only three Lions in service, as opposed to the five Voltron was supposed to have.

Rumors of possible insurrection were afoot, especially as there had been no word of Zarkon since that fateful battle. No word of Haggar, no word of what was happening at the Galra Central Command. No word of anything, really, no matter how what was left of the Blade of Marmora cell they knew tried. And that was taking into account that the Blade weren’t the only sources of information during this long – this _irritating_ – stalemate. There was little else about the overall situation in the universe at large that was open to them – and little they could do about it.

Of course, in the future it would only get harder to cover for the loss of the Black Paladin, Takashi Shirogane – and of the Red Paladin, Keith Kogane – if things really did began to pick up again. Which was why finding one – or hopefully both – of them would be a very, very wonderful thing.

Wonderful not being what Lance was feeling at the moment. He was on distress duty for sixteen vargas – as part of the rotation he, Pidge, Hunk, Allura and Coran had hashed out, when they were not out fighting or doing reconnaissance. Naturally, he wouldn’t be alone. Not when he was taking over from Katie-Pidge-Holt-Gunderson-Vent Gnome-Has To Keep Working On That One Project-etc., of all people. A box-like contraption that was meant to connect to the bridge's main panel and help with scrambling and hacking into certain secure transmission channels in that particular sector of space.

The sector being called Helvicta, of course. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, of course. The area they'd been focusing on since what felt like forever.

“Ugh.” Lance flopped down into his chair, letting out a growl. The sweat from his hours in the training room still clung to his hair, his face, his clothing. He didn’t care. “Seriously, man, it’s my turn to oversee the comms tonight. Move over, get out.”

“Neg…” Pidge let out a grunt with each buzz of the strange, drill-like implement, as she continued to hunch over the bridge’s main panel. “A… _tory_! I’m not done yet!”

“Can’t you work on that later, at least?” Lance groaned as a very unseemly squeak came from under Pidge’s hands. “You’re not going to get those upgrades done tonight!”

“I’m… _NGH_!...going to get this done!” The tool was dropped – no, practically thrown – down onto the ground. “I _will_ get this done and we’ll get _through_ these stupid pirates’ network communications, and that will be _that_!!”

 _Stupid pirates._ Lance rolled his eyes. _Yeah. Stupid pirates._

The Helvicta Corsairs. A large fleet of pirates which had a hold in the nebula they were travelling through. The intelligence that they'd managed to acquire pointed to a very formidable foe - one with access to Galra tech and even had Galra facilities and workers, no less - who had managed to take over many systems in a short period of time. A decade, apparently. Half the time Lance had been alive. That the Galra Empire seemed to have made little move to hinder them, seemed to either confirm Zarkon's regime was overall weaker than originally thought in certain areas, or - more unlikely because they were _pirates_ \- they were possibly allies to the former Black Paladin. Former, because he was...well.

They didn't know if Zarkon was alive, even now. There had been no chase against them, though. No vengeful aftermath to that difficult battle with the Galra Emperor. They must have done _some_ damage, right?

In any case, they’d had a lead on Shiro, in this territory, once. They hadn’t known it was pirates, then. Just that there was something there, something to investigate, a little sliver of hope that their friend and leader would be found. So, once they confirmed the rumor – once they confirmed the truth about there really, possibly, being something in the orbit of the planet Suntala worth checking out – the Paladins knew could have worked with what they had. They could have done well on the mission, getting in and getting out, it they were careful, regardless of whether Shiro was on board or not. There were still four Paladins.

But _someone_ had to go and ruin it.

_Stupid Keith._

Someone else had to go and disappear on them, too.

 

* * *

 

_It had been a strange ship. A ship made of ships, something that the group had never seen before. It was something they knew little about, and had no inkling of what could truly be on it. Whether Shiro was on there or not was in question, along with what  else they might have found within._

_So, of course Keith had to fly ahead, jump out into unknown territory, and make a mess of the whole thing. That was just what he did. It was easy to blame Keith for what happened, right? It was his fault._

_Yet Lance wasn't sure if he didn't share the blame, as he had ultimately been the one to encourage the group to go along with Keith's crazy idea._

_“ GAH!!”_

_“ KEITH!” Static began to fill Lance’s ears, and he heard everyone else begin to shout into the comms. “KEITH!!” _

_“ Nuh…!” There was struggle and pain in Keith’s voice, as well as something else which Lance had rarely heard before. Fear. “Everyone, th-this…!” _

_“ BLIP is unresponsive!” Allura’s tone became panicked. “Keith, are you all right!?”_

_“ No…NO!!”_

_“Dude, Keith!!” Lance quickly began to accelerate his Lion down towards the ship. “Stay calm, we’re coming for you! Come on, give me your location—“_

_And then the ship_ had _to explode, and his Lion was thrown back, and then—_

 _And then they couldn’t find Keith. Keith, who’d been injured, somehow, and who they’d lost contact with. His BLIP didn’t respond._ He _didn’t respond._

_“Keith!?”_

_Lance’s own voice became panicked, as his Lion twirled towards vertigo for him. He saw faint blue lights zipping all around him. One of them flew right beneath his panel; he could see a figure in it. An escape pod._

_“_ KEITH!! _” Lance screamed to the point of feedback. “KEITH, ANSWER ME!!”_

_“ Lance!” Hunk’s voice cut through his screams, no less panicked. “Your Lion’s been hit by debris, you need to get back to the hangar—“_

_“I can’t!” Lance’s voice began to shake. “Keith isn’t responding, he isn’t—“_

_“ Calm down.” Pidge’s voice bluntly – angrily – interrupted. “Allura, I just saw an escape pod fly by me and it looked like it had someone in it! I’m going to go after it!”_

_“What!?” Lance’s heart thumped. “Does…does it have Keith!?”_

_“ I don’t know!!” The Green Lion appeared on the right of his panel, galloping towards who-knew-where-or-what. “Do I _ sound  _like I know!? ”_

_“ I…Paladins!” Allura’s voice finally spoke; it was hardly inspiring to hear her so panicked. “I just…scans indicated escape pods were jetted before the explosion.”_

_“How many?”_

_“ About…183.” Allura’s breath was becoming shallow. “Try and collect who you can.  What you can. I…we’ll get the holding pods ready down below.”_

_“…I’ll go find Keith.” The Blue Lion’s spinning was stopped, Lance finally regaining his control over her. “Come on, I’ll take lead.”_

_“Lance.”_

_“Don’t worry, I’ll be_ fine _—“_

_“Lance, please.” Hunk’s voice practically begged. “Your Lion’s in no condition to continue on. You need to…get back to the hangar. Ok? We’ve got this.”_

No we don’t. No we DON’T—

_Lance’s hands clenched tightly around his control, until he was certain his knuckles were white. He looked down at the floor of his cockpit, gritting his teeth._

_“…Fine.” He turned his Lion around. “You better find him. I’m not losing another teammate…!”_

 

* * *

 

**_~You blame yourself, still.~_ **

_~Yeah?~_ Lance continued to grit his teeth as Pidge continued her mad experiment on the control panel. _~You think?~_

 ** _~That wasn’t your fault.~_** He could feel the Blue Lion, sending him images and thoughts of reassurance. **_~You did what you could.~_**

 _~Then why do I feel so lousy?~_ Lance rubbed his temples, trying to drown out the sounds of smashing metal. _~Why do I feel like it’s my fault? Why do I feel so…~_

 ** _WHAM._** What was Pidge _doing_ over there?

_~…so useless again?~_

**_~…They are alive.~_** Lance closed his eyes as he felt his Lion nudge him mentally. It was trying, he knew it. It didn’t help much, and the Lion knew it. **_~And you will find them. My Paladin, do not give up.~_**

**_CLANG._ **

_~…Hang on, what is she…!~_

“For the love of—“ Finally, Lance stood back up. “Come on, Pidge, seriously!?”

“I.” **_CLANG._** “need.” **_CLANG._** “To fit the scrambler.” **_CLANG CLANG._** “Into the wave emitter!!”

**_SLAM._ **

“D’oh! Stupid…” A large crack appeared on the corner of Pidge’s contraption. “Hang on, now I need to solder the edge of the wave emitter again because you keep distracting me!”

“What!?” Lance let out an indignant (and very undignified) squeak. “I didn’t do anything!!”

Pidge could only look at him with an angry growl, as she stomped off the bridge. Lance, for his part, gave her his own glare, until she was gone. Once she was, Lance’s glare melted, and he let out a grown as he turned back to the communications panel.

He quietly rubbed his eyes.

 

* * *

 

_“Lance?”_

_Lance quickly looked up, taking his hands off his face. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t scared. Nope. Not at all. The business at hand was more important than being a baby._

_“You, uh.” Hunk motioned his head over to the pod area, nervously. “You want to help make sure Allura doesn’t kill our prisoners?”_

_“…Yeah, sure. Whatever.” Lance’s eyes turned to see Allura holding up a large, seven-armed creature, letting out wheezing gasps as her hold around its throat started to tighten. His enthusiasm was just brimming as he spoke. “Hey, Princess, put him down.”_

_“Lance…!”_

_“Fine, fine, I know I said it wrong. Let me try again.” When did he become the go-to voice of reason again? Oh, right. When Keith was an_ idiot _and probably got himself killed. Because he'd agreed with Keith, of course. “Allura, you_ really need _to put him down.”_

_“He’s not cooperating.”_

_“He can’t cooperate if you’re crushing his windpipes, princess.” At this, Lance couldn’t help but give the ghost of a smirk. “Besides, I thought you reserved that kind of brash violence for me! I’m starting to feel_ jealous _—“_

_He was abruptly brought down to his knees as a fist whacked him on his back._

_“_ OW _!!” Lance whined as he saw two eyes, beneath gleaming eyeglass lenses, glaring at him. “What!? I was just trying to help!”_

_“…Hm.” Whether it was Lance’s legendary charm working on her or not, Allura finally relented, dropping the creature to the ground. “Very well. But you would do well to talk, or we will scan you and your friends’ memories for what we want to know. And I can assure you, Altean psychic technology rifling through your mind in the prisoner pod is not a pleasant thing to undergo!”_

_This elicited a choking laugh from the creature._

_“Aaah…Voltron. The stories are t-true, you Paladins really are…savage.”_

_“That is where you are incorrect._ I _am not a Paladin.” Princess Allura’s eyes narrowed. “_ I _am Princess Allura, the keeper of this castleship, and you are at_ my _mercy right now._ Not _theirs.”_

 _“But, um…if you cooperate, she might consider giving you and your friends to us!” Hunk rubbed the back of his head. “Trust me…she’s_ really _not bluffing. We’re way nicer than her when it comes to this stuff.”_

_“Hn.” The prisoner scoffed. “Even if I spoke…I couldn’t tell you everything. I was a transmissions mechanic and little more than that. My job was to simply keep our communications silent from…unwanted interference.”_

_“_ Why _.”_

_“Why?” The creature couldn’t seem to help but smile at the question. “Why would anyone do that, if not to keep oneself silent to the stars, and that which lurks in the void between them?”_

_There was a silence. Lance could feel the tenseness ease a little. However, it was only a little. Allura, he knew, was still more than ready to throttle the prisoner if he blinked wrong._

_“…The Suntala operation was…important to our leader.” The prisoner, perhaps realizing he really didn’t have much wiggling room, finally spoke again, his tone subdued. “Mining. As is common for this sector of space.”_

_“For the Galra?” A tense pause. “For_ Zarkon _?”_

_“…No.” That answer seemed to surprise Allura. “Not…exactly. Not to him.”_

_“Not exactly?” Lance frowned. “What does that mean?”_

_“Well.” The creature smiled. “Who don’t you go down, and see for yourself?”_

_Lance was about to, but his Lion was still being repaired. Hunk went down instead. His report on it was not encouraging. Not remotely._

_A world-wide network of tunnels. Prisoners, scared instead of thrilled of the junk ship’s destruction. They will come back, the creatures said, decked in strange, thick hazard suits and clear gas masks. They always came back._

_There also was, when Hunk went deeper, a deep, dark blue river which seemed to flow through the caverns. The way it seemed to glow in the caves seemed to indicate quintessence, though it was nothing like the quintessence he’d seen before. When he tried to get in closer to investigate, the entire group forcibly dragged him away, telling him not to touch it. It was demonic, evil, deadly for many, and those who survived were worse off. Even those who were Galra feared it, and it was said that the Galra never held fear for anything, otherwise._

_He never got the chance to ask why, before he was shunted away from the mines entirely._

 

* * *

 

“Woah, hey.” Lance’s mind was pulled back by Hunk’s voice. “Is everything ok? I just passed Pidge in the hall, and—“ 

“Its fine,” Lance grumbled, running a hand through his hair. “Pidge is just annoyed about her special project. She'll get over it.”

“Oh, the commhack circuitry and emitter insertion?” Hunk bent down, wincing at the damage. “Not going well, I take it.”

“Nope.” Lance shoved his hands into his pockets. “I told her to stop for the evening, take the time off to rest, but she just doesn’t give up on that thing.”

“You know how Pidge is, man.” Hunk looked at some of the wires, quietly moving a few of them around. “Willing to do whatever it takes. Especially when it involves a situation like this.”

"Yeah...yeah."

A situation like this. A situation Lance clearly hadn't helped with. At all. Lance could only look at Hunk for a few seconds, before looking down at the floor, suddenly finding it very, very interesting. It wasn’t shame, or guilt, or—

“…Look.” He heard Hunk sigh. “I know you haven’t eaten today. I’ve seen you train and…that’s it. You really don't need to keep pushing yourself like this. I’ll make you something, ok?”

Lance sighed, as Hunk quietly made his way back out of the bridge. Training. Training sounded like a good idea. If it wasn’t his turn to watch the bridge, he would so be there right now.

 

* * *

 

_“End simulation!”_

_One moment, Lance was fighting three level five Gladiators that he'd jacked up just for this first match (he could handle it! Really!), Allura behind him with her magical powers. The next moment, he was falling, and falling hard. It was nothing, though. He’d pushed himself harder than this before, and he'd been injured in training before. He could do it again. Every day, since Shiro was gone, he’d trained._

_Now, Keith was gone. He had to pick up the slack. Any hour where he wasn’t sleeping, or getting a bite to eat (but who had the time?!) he was in the training room. He’d be like twelve Keiths by the time he was done, and then he’d be able to face the likes of ten Zarkons face to face, too, no sweat. There was no choice. He’d bear it._

It’s just pain. It’s just pai—wait, who turned off the simulation!?

 _"LANCE!!” He felt hands catching him. “Lance, what are you_ doing _!?”_

_“Ngh…” Lance felt a sharp pain on his side as he shut his eyes. “’M fine, don’t worry, just one more…round…!”_

_“No.” Allura’s frustrated face loomed over him when he re-opened them. “Absolutely not. This has gone too far. You are overwhelming yourself unnecessarily!"_

_"But we have to find them...!"_

_"We_ will _find them."_

_"That means I..." Lance shut his eyes. "Have to keep going!"_

_"Absolutely not." Allura's voice took on that frightening authoritative tone which only meant she was in full princess mode. "Lance, I forbid you to continue this madness until you’re healed from your injuries!”_

_“...Oh.” Upon that, Lance couldn’t help but smirk. “Well, when you say it, how can I refuse?”_

_“Lance.” The sharpness in Allura’s tone brooked no opposition. “I'm not jesting. This can_ not _continue. You cannot push yourself like this.”_

_“Why not?” Lance winced as the princess sat him up. “We’re down our two best men. Who’s gonna pick up the slack if I don’t? Besides, you’re always telling us to train.”_

_“Not like_ this _…!”_

_“But…I…huh?”_

_The next thing Lance knew, Allura was carrying him in her arms. With surprising speed she was running him down the hallway._

Heh. _Lance felt himself flush slightly._ Here I thought it would be the other way around, one day…

_“Coran.” The other Altean let out an exclamation of surprise as Allura entered the med bay, Lance in her arms. “I want you to monitor Lance until he is completely healed. In the meantime, I would like you and Pidge to work on placing limitations on the Blue Paladin’s permissions in the training room for the foreseeable future.”_

_“What!?”_

_“This includes using the labyrinth.”_

_“But…!” Lance tried to protest, but his stiffening only made the injury sear through his stomach, causing it to come out as a pained moan. “No, come on, guys…I have to_ do _this!”_

 _“I…” Coran blinked. “I wasn’t expecting such a request regarding the_ Blue _Paladin, but I shall see what we can do.”_

_At this, Lance let out a whimper of protest as he was dropped into one of the healing pods. As it began to fill, his eyes caught Pidge running into the room, her mouth moving, her eyes widened. Allura and Coran’s eyes began to widen as well, and then—_

_And then the healing pod began its work, and Lance would see and hear nothing for nearly eight hours. It was only after he awoke, that he first heard the word Helvicta. Then, the order from Allura to chart a course to a new planet – Zethanic._

_One of their prisoners had just admitted that there was another ship, and another operation, just like the one on Suntala._

 

* * *

 

They hadn’t expected any Lions, Lance mused, much less any kind of attack. Who did, in this sector of space, so far from the center of the Galra Empire’s power and even from normal mining areas and trade routes, right? Officially, there was hardly anything worth taking – and the quintessence, like before, was the strange blue type that the planet’s inhabitants seemed to fear anyone using. Anyone, even the Galra, the enemy of the universe.

In any case, they’d apparently managed to free the planet from the Galra. Or…whoever the Helvicta were. _What_ ever they were. Some of the planet’s newly-freed inhabitants said they were Galra. Others said they weren't Galra. Still others claimed they were pirates of many species, from across the cosmos. No side could fully reconcile their stories. At least they agreed to take the Castle’s prisoners and try them properly, but they, in the end, said the same thing to Allura as the Suntala miners had said to Hunk.

_They come back, the people said. They said they always come back. And…_

…Oh. A sandwich. A space sandwich, the sigh of which made Lance’s stomach growl. If only he didn’t have to eat. Why did humans have to eat?

Hunk must have left it while he was…sleeping? No, he hadn’t been sleeping. He'd been thinking. Remembering the quick battle at Zethanic – the ship had also self-destructed, of course – and his little accident where he was totally not terribly injured with the training room beforehand. He still trained now, of course. He still had to. Pidge and Coran’s additions to the training permissions had limited his ability to train as he had those first few weeks. No more wearing himself down to the point of injury. A four-hour daily limit on training, with one immediate fifteen-minute shutdown per hour. Level three gladiators and two gladiators per fight, at the maximum.

He’d still not broken whatever locks Pidge had put on the system. The locks themselves were beyond his understanding, and whenever he even got close to breaking one, Pidge would add extra layers of protection anyways, thwarting him. In the meantime, though, he pushed those limits put on him as far as he could, like he had done that very day. He’d gotten better. He could tell.

But it wasn’t good enough, was it? It would never be good enough. There was a hole in Voltron, an opening in the Paladins, an emptiness in the Castle’s halls. They were there, and he couldn’t fill it. No matter what he did, he just couldn’t compensate.

 _~I know, I know.~_ He could feel his Lion attempt to reassure him, as he bit into his sandwich. _~You think I’m doing the best I can do.~_

 ** _~You are.~_** An image of a green planet filled his eyes. **_~Do you not realize this? The other Paladins, you know they are concerned for you. I can see it when you look at them. You must understand why they are worried. Though you are brave and strong, there is a limit to what you can do.~_**

Lance munched on his sandwich.

**_~You are not the Red or Black Paladin. You are you. You must do what you can do.~_ **

The munching stopped, and Lance shut his eyes. Of course. _Of course_.

_~Yeah. I get it. Ok? Just say it. I’m not Keith or Shiro. I’ll never be Keith or Shiro. I’ll never be…~_

And there it was. The truth. He pulled back before saying the two words in the back of his head since the beginning of this whole mess.

Good enough. He just wasn’t good enough to help salvage this situation for everyone.

_~Thanks for reminding me, Lion.~_

**_~My Paladin…!~_ **

He pulled away from the link, shutting his mind off and slamming the sandwich down on the panel. Shoving it away. Its layers scattered on the bright lights, and crumbs flew onto the pristine floor as he buried his head into his hands.

Just like that, he wasn’t hungry anymore.


	2. Tuzak

“…ear…thi...food is _every_ where!...”

Coran’s voice rang into Lance’s ears as he slowly opened his eyes. His forearms stared back at him, as did the faint light of the communication interface that his nose almost touched. Letting out a yawn, he stretched his back and sat up.

How the _quiznak_ long had he been out? When had he dozed off?...

“Oh, you’re awake.” The Castle’s machines were already sucking up the last of what was left of the uneaten space sandwich as Coran spoke again. “I apologize, I know the varga’s quite a late one, even by our hectic schedule. I presume no calls have come in?”

“Uuuh…”

Lance gulped as he looked up. While he certainly didn’t have the knowledge of Altean language that Pidge had been garnering, he knew enough to know when new lines of code had appeared on the screens, indicating the castleship system's logging of incoming calls. There was nothing new; a good thing. If an incoming call hadn’t been answered by him, an entire planetary system could have been doomed through his inaction.

It _would_ have been his luck to sleep through an alarm, right?

“No calls.”

“Excellent!” Coran walked over, hands behind his back. “I don’t suppose you mind some company for the moment?”

“Sure, I guess.” Lance rubbed his eyes as he felt a new chair pop up, and Coran made himself at home. “How long was I out?”

“I can’t say, but you still have nine varga left, if our agreed-upon schedule is correct.” Coran leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “It is quite late, though.”

Lance watched Coran, as he looked up at the screen. The narrowing of his eyes, the frown on his mouth, it was as if he was trying to will the screen to come up with the solution to their problems, right then and there.

“…Can’t sleep, I take it?”

“I am…generally a light sleeper.” Coran cocked his head. “Though I will admit, I have also spent my time looking through the information we have compiled over the last few quintants. Everything so far has been most illuminating! These Helvicta are very dangerous indeed.”

“…and that weird blue quintessence?”

“Ah, yes. ‘The Blue’, as its so aptly nicknamed by these pirates.” The tug at his moustache was a bit harder than his usual motions, Lance noticed. “That was what the few files we were able to recover from Yeşil called it. Unfortunately, whoever coordinated the tactics in destroying the facility we found made certain to dispose of as much as possible even as we tried to hack it. We shall likely never know _precisely_ what was going on there…”

“The giant vats we found notwithstanding…”

“…but it appears what was recovered mentions that ‘The Blue’ is found on multiple planets in this sector – many more than the ones where the, ah, ‘junk ships’ and their mining facilities have been located – and is _exceedingly_ dangerous to Galra health.”

“Dangerous?”

“Yes. Even potentially fatal, in Galra-friendly atmospheric temperatures. And that little bittid—“

“Tidbit.” Lance raised his hand. “Its tidbit.”

“Right, right. My knowledge of Earth expressions need work. That _tidbit_ was from the one official Galra Empire dossier that survived in our documentation gathering, no less!”

“But…” That was certainly news to Lance. “Wait, if it’s so dangerous to them, why are the Galra even mining it?”

“An excellent question.” Coran folded his hands, his eyes again narrowed and up towards the screen. “An excellent question indeed. I must wonder if the prisoner on Yeşil could have answered that question…well, if we had been allowed to talk to them after that debacle...”

 

* * *

 

_“They were seriously not expecting us, were they?”_

_The three Paladins had landed on Yeşil, at long last, a month and a half after Keith’s disappearance. It had taken time, patience, and multiple interrogations of multiple prisoners, including a new batch of ship crew from another junk ship, to get the information out into the open. Seven planets had been liberated before they had even heard the word Yeşil. All the inhabitants had said the same thing, that they would come back. They. The Helvicta._

_Maybe now that wouldn’t be the case, as the Paladins finally fought their way into – and through – was very clearly a Galra-made facility, with smooth, even, straight corridors and rooms. One of the prisoners - a swabber caught on their ship coming right from the planet, no less - had even given them a fair outline of what was in the buildings, in terms of its layout. It was the first time in this strange exercise to apparently free this sector of space – an exercise they hadn’t even anticipated when they went in looking for Shiro - that they had even gotten into hand-to-hand combat. Still, even there, it was oddly sparse with Galra, and the Galra they did find were not what they expected._

_“Hunk! Behind you!”_

_Lance fired his rifle, knocking the weapon out of the hands of an oddly small Galra before it could fire. When it tried to reach for it again, Hunk sprang into action, swinging a fist and knocking them out._

_“Yeah!” For the first time in awhile, Lance actually felt less…angry, and more like himself. It was nice. He even did finger guns once he put his bayard back on his hip. “Score one for the McClain, zero for the Cat People. Pew pew!”_

_“Thanks, man.” Hunk grabbed up the enemy’s gun for himself, his eyes narrowing as he turned it over. “Seriously, another one of these weird guns? Where’s all the weird heavy artillery to defend this place?”_

_“Maybe they really weren’t expecting us. They’re not even standard Galra guns, they must be…I don’t know, like…peashooters I bet.” Lance frowned as he picked up the unconscious creature. “Kinda scrawny for a Galra, don’t you think?”_

_“Uh, and…” Hunk’s eyes widened. “Kind of feathery for a Galra, too.”_

_“What?” At this, Lance looked at Hunk in mock distress, placing a hand on his chest. “Got something against thin, wiry men with good hair?”_

_“No no, I mean…she’s got feathers!”_

_Turning the creature to its back, Hunk pointed to her hair. Lance’s eyes widened as he saw the large feathers, interspersed with the tell-tale Galra fur. She also, once Lance got a closer look, had a beak-like mouth, the jaw-like protrusion the color of mother-of-pearl._

_“I…” Lance looked up at Hunk, who looked as surprised as he felt. “Wait, Galra have beaks? When did Galra have_ beaks _?”_

_“I don’t know.” Hunk carefully set the creature down. “I’ve never seen it before. Maybe we should ask Cora—“_

_“HEY!! AH!!”_

_Pidge’s shout suddenly rang through the hall, and the two male Paladins looked at one another before running down to the end, and to the source of the shouts. The doorway which blocked them from the Green Paladin had multiple security blocks; Hunk ended the problem by simply blasting a hole through the door._

_“Come on, come on--!?”_

_When they finally jumped through the hole and into the room, Lance felt his heart stop, and sweat suddenly form on his brow._

_He was in a giant domed room, which was imperceptibly hot, even in comparison to the rest of the facility. the only light coming from the glow of blue liquid filling ten giant vats. The vats were all connected via wires to large panels hanging from the ceiling; the information on them looked a great deal like that of a heart monitor back on Earth, only more translucent. Nine of the vats had no activity on their panels; as Lance walked closer, and felt the temperature rise, he saw that those nine were empty._

_“Hey! Guys!!”_

_Lance quickly looked up. Pidge had climbed up to the edge of the tenth, and was pulling on something from the vat. The panel above had wildly scribbling purple lines; if the panel was, indeed, what Lance compared it to from his home, then he knew what Pidge was likely pulling out of there._

_“Pidge! Hang on!” Hunk was at the ladder first. “I’m coming up!”_

_“Not without me!”_

_Within thirty seconds Lance was also climbing, his head peaking up to see Hunk and Pidge on a diving board-like platform over the vat. He could feel his pits start to get wet; the_ quiznak _heat was starting to get uncomfortable, even for him._

_“What’s going on? What do you have there?”_

_“I was just downloading some files from one of the consoles in this room, and then I saw this—“ Pidge nearly fell in when the arm she was holding suddenly tried to pull away; Hunk quickly grabbed her and kept her upright. “HEY! Come on, stop_ squirming _! We’re here to help!”_

_“Glllnnno…”_

_The owner of the arm suddenly popped up, letting out a gasp as they splashed blue quintessence all around them. A large piece of it landed on Pidge’s armor with a hssss, smoke rising from it._

_“No…!” As Lance watched, the terrified Olkari swallowed the quintessence that had been dripping down their lips. Smaller specks of the blue began to seep into their skin with a hiss, yet it seemed to leave no burn. “Let me go! I must…this…I_ PROMISED _!!”_

_“Promised? You’re practically shackled in this thing!” Pidge began to pop off electrodes and wiring from the creature, who cried out in protest with each piece taken off of them. “Come on, I’m here to rescue—“_

_She nearly dropped the creature back into the goop when the alarm suddenly blared, with strobes and red lights flashing._

_“GAH!!” Lance nearly fell off the ladder. “What the—“_

_“ **RED ALERT.** ” A pleasant-sounding female voice – Altean, somehow from the inflections - accompanied the sudden flashing lights and the loud buzzing alarms. “ **RED ALERT. CONTAINMENT BREECH INDICATED. RADIOACTIVITY LEVELS RISING. THREE-DAKİKA SELF-DESTRUCT ACTIVATED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN AN ORDERLY FASHION.** ”_

_“Oh no…!” Lance looked at Hunk and Pidge. “We’ve got to go!”_

_“I’m not…” Pidge grunted, holding onto the Olkari despite their struggles. “NGH…leaving without them!”_

_“…Hunk, grab them.”_

_“What?”_

_“Grab the prisoner.” Lance leaned in with his height, reaching for Pidge. “Come on, Pidge, I’ve got you!”_

_“Huh?” Lance began to drag the Green Paladin away, who herself began to protest. “Wait! I want to get a sample of this blue quintessence too! Come on, Lance, don’t do this—“_

_Lance set his face to a scowl. In any other situation, he’d not care. Here, he’d brook no protest. They had to get out, and there was only one way to do that._

_Pidge would have to piggyback._

_“You jerk.” Pidge grumbled as, several ticks later, she was on the running Lance’s back. “I’m not five years old anymore. I can run on my own!”_

_“Missing the point, Gunderson!” Lance puffed as he continued run. “We need to get out of here right the_ quiznak _now!”_

_“ **RED ALERT. TWO-DAKİKA WARNING.** ”_

_“Right behind you!” Lance turned quickly to look behind him at the response. The apparent prisoner was in Hunk’s arms as he jogged behind the Blue Paladin, using his jets to quicken his pace as the clock ran down. “Miss, er, sir? Please stop struggling, we’re here to help and you’re clearly hurt!”_

_“No…” Lance could hear the protests and the strange, strained gasps even after he turned to keep running. Their struggles were compounded with wracking seizures. “No, no, I’m not done, I’m not…_ done _!!”_

 _“I’m really sorry,” Hunk grit his teeth, his feet pounding the pavement. “But if you stay, you really will_ be _done!”_

_“ Paladins!” Suddenly, Lance’s helmet crackled to life with Coran’s panicked voice. “Hurry back to the Castle, we have a problem!”_

_“Working on it…!!”_

_“ **RED ALERT, ONE-DAKİKA…** ”_

_The three Paladins burst through the main doorways, jumping onto their speeders and watching as several dozen figures ran out of the facility as well, from different portals and entrances that they had not noticed upon entering the facility. They were almost to their Lions, and Lance picked up his pace._

_“Pidge! Get your Lion out of here, I’ll let you in Blue!”_

_“But…! I can drive my own!!”_

_“There’s no time! Call your Lion!!”_

_“UGH!” Pidge let out an angry growl. “Fine, fine!”_

_Near-instantaneously, the Green Lion sprang to life, rushing forward to scoop up its speeder before flying upwards into the sky. His speeder leaping into his Lion’s open mouth, and practically flying from between his legs into the back, Lance dropped Pidge off his back, hopping into his seat._

_“Come on! Go go go…!” Lance was shouting into his radio. “Hunk! Come on, we’ve got to--!”_

_His shouting was interrupted by a bright, brilliant explosion, which threw all the Blue and Yellow Lions violently backwards. The Blue Lion shook it off, and began to fly; the Yellow Lion, however, was on its side and completely still._

_“Hunk? Hunk!!” Lance’s breath began to hyperventilate. No, no no no no— “HUNK!!”_

_Nothing._

_“_ HUNK _!!!”_

_“ **ATTENTION, SKEEFS.** ”_

_A sudden, new voice suddenly echoed through the radio system. Deep, dark, dangerous. It was not any voice they’d heard before._

_But there was no doubt it was a Galra, and they were likely a leader - if not_ the _leader - of whatever they were facing in this place._

_“Lance?!” Pidge stood up, hanging onto the backrest of his chair. “I think we’re in trouble.”_

_“You think?!”_

_“We need to get out of here.”_

_“But…” Lance’s hand began to shake. Not again. Not this again. “Hunk…”_

_“ **YOU’RE FLYING LIONS.** ” The voice continued. “ **AND IF YOU’RE FLYING LIONS, YOU MUST BE VOLTRON. HEH. THINK YOU’RE TOUGH, DON’T YOU?** "_

_Lance looked up, his Lion flying hard towards the castle. He could feel Pidge grabbing onto his headrest, and he turned to see her eyes shut tight, gritting her teeth from the speed._

_“ **WELL, YOU’RE NOT THREATENING ME. YOU’RE JUST MAKING ME MAD. GETTING MY SHIPS BLOWN UP. INTERRUPTING MY SUPPLY CHAINS. COMING IN HERE LIKE YOU OWN THE WHOLE NEBULA. TAKING WHAT DOESN’T**_ ** BELONG ** _**TO YOU. PLANETS. PEOPLE. SHIPS. THAT BASE.** ” There was barely restrained rage in the voice. “ **NOW WHAT? DID YOU IDIOTS REALLY THINK I’D LET YOU JUST WALTZ IN THAT FACILITY AND STEAL WHAT WAS IN IT? RUIN MY PLANS? MAYBE YOU THOUGHT YOU’D FIND YOUR LITTLE PALADIN FRIEND?** ”_

_“What…!?”_

_Lance’s heart froze, as Pidge let out an exclamation of surprise. Paladin friend. This guy, this Galra, meant one of their own. He meant…he meant…one of their two missing teammates._

_They were alive._

_But who—_

_“ **I DON’T THINK SO.** ”_

_Lance’s breath began to catch._

_“ Paladins!?” Allura’s voice echoed through the comms, quick and worried. “Retreat and return to the Castle immediately! We’re being set upon by—“_

_“ **HEY!  HOW ABOUT YOU SHUT UP, YOU STUPID GIRL! I’M NOT FINISHED**_ ** TALKING _!_  **"

_Suddenly, Allura’s transmission was cut off._

_"Allura!? Coran!? ALLURA!!" Pidge gasped as she smacked her helmet. "No way, I can't get a hold of either of them..!"_

_“ **YOU WANT A FIGHT?** ”  The figure was almost yelling at this point. “ **YOU WANT TO CHALLENGE**_ ** ME _? FINE! I’LL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER SETTING FOOT IN THE TERRITORY OF THE HELVICTA! CORSAIRS!_ ** _”_

_“ G…guys?” Another voice, also scared, cut into the radio. “Guys, can you hear me?”_

_“Hunk!!” Lance’s relief at hearing the third Paladin couldn’t bury the ever-increasing worry. “Hunk, you’re ok!!”_

_“ Y-yeah…” Hunk’s tone sounded even more frightened than Lance felt. “Guys, don’t panic when you look up, but…”_

_“Hunk?”_

_Lance looked up, straight into the sky as it darkened into the black of space, and felt his heart drop even further. There was a giant junk ship, advancing on the Castle of Lions. No – over a dozen of them. All of them huge. All of them the same metal chimera vessels, the same junk ships, all casting shadows onto the receding ground below._

_All of them firing on the Castle of Lions, explosions dotting the hull; worse, it seemed to be preventing the Castle from bringing up its shields._

_“No, no,_ no _...Allura?!” Still no response as Lance slammed his fists into his console. “_ Princess _!? Coran, come on, respond!”_

_"ALLURA!!"_

_Pidge’s panicked screams were matched by Lance’s, as one particularly large explosion caused the Castle to start careening onto its side. It was hit. It was hit bad._

_It was looking ready to go down._

_A trap. It had been a trap._

_“ALLURA! CORAN!! **ALLURA** —!!”_

_The prisoner had let themselves be captured, to draw them to Yeşil. And the pirate leader had been waiting for them to arrive. These pirates knew they were coming, and had been ready for them the whole time. Ready to strike a devastating blow._

_Because they always came back—_

_“ **NO!!** ”_

“Hey!”

The next thing Lance felt, after gasping was a squeezing hand on his shoulder. Lance’s head instantly went up, and he wasn’t screaming for Allura on Yeşil. He was back on the bridge of the Castle, his breath quick, as Coran looked at him in concern. Too close.

He really thought he was back there, that time.

“I…” Lance clenched his fists. _Regulate your breath, Lance, you’re good_. “I’m sorry, Coran, I—“

“No need to apologize.” Coran began to stand. “I ought not to have reminded you of that day. It’s quite clearly…still fresh. That was my fault. So, if you’ll—“

“You don’t have to leave.”

Coran’s eyes widened, as he slowly began to sit down once more. Rubbing his eyes, Lance looked back at the screen, before closing his eyes again. There was a pause, before Coran spoke again, his tone thoughtful.

“Yes, hm, it was bad. But, it could’ve been worse, right? And had it not been for your quick-thinking, in using the Blue Lion’s ice beam to protect the Castle from the brunt of the attack on her flank, we would not be talking here.” 

“ _My_ quick thinking?” Lance couldn’t help but smirk, nevertheless. “Well, hey, what can I say? My Lion knows when to cool it.”

“Well, in any case.” Coran frowned, the pun clearly going over his head. “We did get to see just what we were up against, at least. And you helped to save us for another quintant.”

“Yeah.”

Lance sighed, the smirk fading slightly.

_If you say so._

Maybe it was true that he’d saved the day. Maybe not. Lance’s use of the beam, along with Pidge’s own vine beam from her Lion, had protected the Castle, and allowed for the restraint of several of the ships that had been attacking. It had been just long enough for the three Paladins to return to the ship and for the Castle to finally bring up its barrier.

However, the fleet was large, the ships larger. They had the element of surprise, and smaller shooters – several of them Galra fighters, no less - had arrived as backup. By the time the Castle managed to open a wormhole and retreat, it had taken decent damage. Lance found the Castle on its way back to Olkarion for repairs, with Princess Allura personally returning the unfortunate Olkari back to their people. Most of the Helvicta prisoners they had taken before the attack on Yeşil were also hauled up to Ryner, to do whatever she would with them; the rest they kept for further questioning.

It took three wee—spicolians? Spicolians - to fix the damage done before they flew out again. It was only more time for whoever – whatever – Helvicta was to hurt whichever Paladin they might have.

Was it Shiro? Was it Keith? Even now, no one on the Castle knew. Nor did they know what happened to the Olkari they found. They were there one moment, pale and trembling, then taken away the next for...treatment, apparently. Yet the Paladins were never told about their recovery. No idea of their name or gender or age, or if they were alive or dead. The Olkari they encountered simply refused to speak about it, gently gliding anyone who asked to a different subject. Even Ryner was silent when Pidge tried to broach the subject with her; she would only say that Lubos, while in charge, had previously sent them away for ‘unfortunate reasons that were now presenting themselves’.  There was nothing the Paladins could do to help on that front, and that was that.

When they’d discussed it, Hunk had recalled the words of the people of Suntala. That had been a chilling moment, for it meant only two things. The Olkari they had freed had died, or…

_Demonic. Evil. Deadly for many. And those who didn’t die…_

If only Pidge had managed to get a sample of that blue quintessence back then. That was probably his fault, even if it meant Pidge would have had to be scraped off the side of what was left of that facility after it exploded. Maybe she'd have had the time even with the countdown. But they'd never know, now.

“…Hey, Coran,” Lance stood up, finally. “You think anyone would object if we left the bridge for two minu-dobosh to get something to drink?”

“I don’t see how it would be remiss!” Coran brightened up. “Indeed, I was quite thinking of making something for myself. You know, there was a sleep remedy I was thinking of making, one that King Alfor himself enjoyed. Shall we?”


	3. Osuruk

When Lance was a kid, and he or any of his siblings had trouble sleeping or was sick, his mother would always make a glass of a weird-tasting concoction that she called _leche mágica_. Magic milk. She promised that, after drinking a whole glass of it, any child under a certain age would be put right to sleep in the hour; if Lance or his brothers and sisters ever doubted it, she’d make a bet with them. If they didn’t fall asleep like she promised, she’d take the child who had beaten the magic to The Most Magical Place on Earth, all alone, for a whole week.

No McClain child had ever been able to beat the _leche mágica_ challenge. It probably helped, as Lance later came to find out, that the concoction really had warm milk in it - albeit, mixed with the strongest rum in the liquor cabinet. He sure wouldn’t have minded some rum at that moment, now that he thought about it. He wasn't a big drinker, but some Earth alcohol sounded like a welcoming idea.

Great, now he made himself miss The Most Magical Place on Earth, as well. Heck, he just missed Earth in general right now. The feelings of homesickness eased and strengthened, depending on what was happening around him. He knew he couldn’t just abandon Shiro and Keith to whatever fate was in store for them – if both were even alive at this point – but the moment they’d squared out what happened to them? He would go to Allura and ask to _at least_ let him take a sabbatical back home. A long, long, long, _long_ sabbatical. He’d beg on his hands and knees. He'd come back after his vacation time was used up!  _Honest_.

At least they still had the cow, and what he was drinking was real milk, like back on Earth.

“Ah…” Coran, for his part, was breathing in the scent of his herbal drink. “This always brings me back to Altea. I’m quite glad I remembered how this was made! I’m sure I’d never get sleep otherwise.”

“…You doing to sleep already?”

“Once I finish this drink. I will want to be near my rooms when I do. Its quite potent.” Coran smiled at him, patting Lance on his back. “Do not worry, though, I’ll get there safely. And…do you mind if I may be so bold?”

“What?”

“…you’ve done well.” Lance’s eyes widened as the aide took a sip of his drink. “You needn’t be hard on yourself. You are not the Black or the Red Paladin. You are the Blue Paladin. And you are doing an excellent job.”

“That…” Lance turned to look at him. “I don’t know about that. I mean, Keith and Shiro would be—oh.“

Coran was already leaving, his legs already wobbling. He stopped before the doorway, turning back to Lance.

“You ought to know that I am proud of you, as the...haaaa!...Blue Paladin." Even as he spoke, a yawn escaped Coran's lips. "Even when we find your teammates. I certainly won’t stop being proud of you.”

 

* * *

 

_“Hey, you.”_

_The technician – Technician No. 2?  They had the same occupation as the very first prisoner they had interrogated, just on a different craft. How many technicians did these pirates have on their ships? - was quiet, as Lance entered the prisoner area. Still asleep, but it was only a matter of time before the sleep would wear off. Then, he’d have this creature all to himself, to do as he saw fit. Which meant getting answers, before they even considered going back to the face the Helvicta directly._

_He had to wonder, as he gave Technician No. 2’s dog-like form a glare. Did he know? Was he aware, as many on his ship had known, that attacking the facility was a trap? That helping those planets he, and all the previous prisoners of the hold he was in, seemed to willingly give to the Paladins after being imprisoned, would inevitably bring the whole of the fleet on them?_

_Surely, he had to know. At the very least, he had to know about how Allura’s communications were cut off so easily like they were. He did mention upon capture, as his earlier counterpart had, that he was the one who made the junk ship 'silent to the stars', after all. He’d probably be willing to die to make sure Voltron went no further in that sector of space, in the name of piracy or pride or whatever._

_“Oh.” After being awakened, Technician No. 2 - Lance knew he had a name, but right at that moment, he didn't care - couldn’t help but smirk within his tank. “The Paladins grace me with their presence once more. It has been too long since you spoke to me. I was sure you might leave me here to rot, or eject me into space.”_

_“Yeah, yeah, it’s just me.” Lance waved his hand dismissively, furtively. “I’m not going to shoot you out an airlock, even if I am totally within my rights to do so right now.”_

_“What a pity. I’m certain cruelty befits you_ righteous  _crusaders of the universe.  So, did you enjoy meeting my leader? He is quite good at his job. I’ve seen his work before.”_

_“Uh huh, real charming guy.” Lance’s frown deepened. “You know I’m not here on a social call, right?” I’m here to make you talk about just how you guys altered our communications channel. Then, when I’m done, we’re turning you, and what's left of your crew that we kept, over to someone who can jail you all for the rest of your life."_

_“And who would that be? The Galra Empire?” The pirate snorted. “They’re the only other authority worth a_ dakika _in this universe. Aside from us, of course. I doubt they’ll be any more cordial to you than we are.”_

_“Mmph.”_

_Lance turned away from the technician at this, shutting his eyes. The Galra Empire. That was a Galra facility they’d attacked, that much he was sure about. And yet the Galra were afraid of the blue quintessence. And the Galra they did find, were…weird. The one had feathers. They weren’t…quite Galra?_

_He grunted. He was pretty sure the answer was right in front of him, but he wasn’t quite grasping it. Though, no one else on their team had figured out the answer, either. Other than…maybe the Galra punished people with the blue quintessence? Maybe they were halfway to being Robeasts, or other types of monsters that the Paladins hadn’t faced before?_

_Was that what they were doing to that Olkari? Turning it into a monster?_

_“Oh?” The technician brought Lance back to the present. “Did I shock you to silence?”_

_“Noooo.” Lance’s response sounded more like a teenager whining than the spare of the spare of the spare leader of Voltron, but whatever. He turned back around, his upper lip under his teeth. “I’m thinking of a good question to ask you so you’ll reveal information to me! Geez.”_

_“You’re a terrible interrogator if you think I’ll cave by_ just _asking me a question.”_

_“Not true! I’m an awesome interrogator!!” Lance pointed to his face, which only caused the prisoner to laugh. “Seriously! I will make you talk and I won’t beat you up to do it! And you will be totally sorry for doubting me!”_

_“You can try any question you want.” Ugh, he just wanted to wipe that smugness off of the alien’s face. “You will not get anything more from me. You shall just have to leave me to my ultimate fate, whatever you choose it to be.”_

_“…Really?” Lance squinted. “Not even if I just asked you your name?”_

_Silence._

_“…Haha, real funny.” Lance stomped off. “Look, I’ll be right back, ok?”_

_Maybe he needed help on this. He really was doing terrible. He attempts at getting more information were clearly going over like a fart in Havana Cathedral. And that was being said even though he liked his farts, personally._

_…Wait._

_He had an idea. A terrible, terrible idea. So, when he had a terrible idea, there was only one thing for him do to: act on it. He’d have to talk to Coran for help on it, but surely, Coran could be convinced, right?_

_It took him about a varga or so to convince Coran to help him with his idea. Another two vargas to actually work on it becoming a reality. So, it was a good time later after the first encounter, that Lance strolled back into the prisoner hold, Paladin armor on and a devilish smile on his face. He showed his teeth, even as the prisoner looked back at him, completely unimpressed by his sudden bravado._

_Oh, this dude had no idea what he was asking for. Not even a hint._

_“Sooooooo.” Lance knew his smile was completely and utterly cheesy, but it was only a hint of what he was about to inflict on the unsuspecting pirate. “You going to tell me what you know? Last chance.”_

_“My answer is the same as it was before.” The prisoner was as smug and unintimidated as could be. “You, your fellow Paladins, and your princess will get nothing more from me.”_

_“…Welp. Can’t say I didn’t warn you.” Lance cleared his throat. “Coran?”_

_“Yes, Blue Paladin?”_

_“Activate the gas.”_

_For the first few ticks, there was no response from the prisoner that there was anything wrong. Indeed, the prisoner simply floated, still looking unimpressed. Indeed, they began to yawn, and took a deep breath in their mouth and…wherever their nostrils were. Lance still wasn’t sure where that was. It didn’t matter._

That’s right. Breeeathe it in.

_Then their breath hitched, and their eyes widened._

_"I…wh…what!?”_

_"Heheheh.” Lance’s head deliberately tilted in mock concern. “What’s wrong? You look surprised.”_

_“Th-this…” The creature began to gasp, clawing at its throat. “No! NO!! You hairless_ beast _, you’re…you’re poisoning me!! You’re going to kill me like this, you…you…!!”_

_“Kill you? Oh ho ho no.” Lance slowly leaned in until his nose pressed against the glass. “I’m going far worse. What you’re breathing in? It isn’t poison. Its worse than anything that could kill you.”_

_He was just so…_

_“Its my_ broccoli farts _!”_

_…juvenile._

_Also it technically wasn't broccoli. Just as close an approximation to it as one could get in space._

_It got the job done, still. The technician broke down immediately, as Lance threatened that as long as he didn’t reveal what he knew, he’d have to withstand the ultimate flatulence stench in his air supply. Forever and ever! And – the Blue Paladin assured his increasingly frightened guest – there was plenty of broccoli for him to eat. Well, again, a close space equivalent of broccoli, but the prisoner didn’t need to know. The pirate rambled, frightened and sickened, as Lance scribbled whatever he could about the specs of whatever machine the corsairs used. Pidge – or if not her, Hunk - could figure out what the terms meant._

_There was more to it, though. The prisoner knew about the pirates, knew their basics. They were called Helvicta, based on their home system. They’d been simple miners, once, and it was why mining was still so important to them. Galra slaves, actually. Something happened to change it, and because of it, the Galra left the area to its own devices. The technician didn’t know what – he’d joined later. But the commander – the deep-voiced, angry figure on the comms – was the leader. He was also Galra._

_The technician didn’t know much about the blue quintessence the Helvicta mined – he’d rarely come in contact with it. Save for two things – the first was that 'The Blue' was important to the Helvicta's leverage over multiple areas of space. The second was that the Helvicta’s self-destruct protocol, which everyone was made aware of when the joined the corsairs. If a ship or facility carrying the quintessence was in any kind of danger, be it because of an outside threat or because of a containment leak, the crew were to automatically start an emergency countdown, flee, and regroup to a safe spot. It was what happened on the Suntala’s orbiting junk ship – and it was also a ship that the commander had been on before it had blown up._

_“He’s an angry creature.” The prisoner warned, one last time, before the Paladins carted him, and the remaining group or pirates that had not been given to the Olkari, to the nearest Blade of Marmora cell to be dealt with. “He hates anyone who tries to hurt him. His fleet is easily replenished, and his people will fight you to the last. The Galra Empire couldn’t stop him. You’re nothing but fools going to your deaths if you think you can do any better!”_

_He tried escaping, breaking into a run towards the base hangar. When he failed, he was dragged off by the Blades into a tunnel, as Lance watched. Despite getting answers, it only ended up bringing up more questions. Blue quintessence. 'The Blue', as Coran mentioned the pirates - and the Galra Empire - referred to it as. What was so important about it that a Galra would want it, even knowing it’s dangers?_

_He never did get the prisoner’s name, either._

 

* * *

 

_You won’t stop being proud, huh?_

Lance took a deep breath as he re-entered the bridge. Only to hear the sound of drilling and _khhhssss_ ing. Was _khhhssss_ ing even a word?

Whatever, Pidge was still awake. And she was back on the bridge. _Ugh_.

“Hey!” Lance crossed his arms, glaring. “Dude, I told you that could wait until tomorrow!”

“I know, I _know_!” Pidge’s voice came from under the bridge. “But when I was laying in my bed, I was falling asleep, and I decided I needed to soldier the outer covering of the commhack together, and then I thought about what the Olkari would do in this situation. Then when I thought about the Olkari’s tree species, because nature is their science and all, I realized that a few of them had certain types of vines with certain types of cellular make-up. That made me think that I was looking at the commhack wrong. We need a _specific_ type of wiring to work with the wave emitter’s quant-battery without frying the scrambler after turning it on…”

“…And you’re making that wiring right now?”

“I was going to, but…” There was a strange clacking sound coming from the box-like contraption. “I couldn’t! We’ve got no vines of that tree species on board. So, after talking to Hunk about possible substitutes, I had to improvise and use the game system’s connectors.”

“… _what_?!”

Lance’s face fell. The game system. The game system from home. The one they had fought a _mall cop_ to keep alongside Kalternecker.

“B-but…but I thought we were going to figure out how to play the Mercury with the ship's technology!”

“Nope, we’re gonna use it for the commhack.” _Clang._ “I already disassembled it and put the motherboard into the main scrambler drive. I'm connecting the shell and its wiring back into it right now.”

 “You—?!”

He leaned down to see, that, to his horror, the game system was indeed disassembled, assimilated into the contraption, one of the games sticking out of the cartridge port, its back taken off to reveal a battery and card covered with wires. A scalurite lens was also stuck down into the cartridge slot, and that was connected to the bottom of the bridge’s panel, along with the prior wiring and upgrades Pidge had added to it.

“But…Needlemouse 1 and 2!!” Lance let out a whine. “Basketball Party… _all of those classic games_ …!!”

“Really?” Pidge’s head popped out, her expression one of annoyance. “Is that seriously all you can think of right now, the fact you can’t play those one video games? There are more important things than _stupid video games_ , you _idiot_!”

_You are doing an excellent job._

Lance looked away at this, feeling his face flush. Yeah. He was just being ridiculous. Selfish. His usual self, in all truth. And Coran was _proud_ of him?

“…Look, just…” Pidge sighed. She wasn’t looking at him, was she? “Give me that thing, ok?”

“Huh?” Lance looked over at the small pile of tools, still feeling hot in his cheeks. “You have a lot of _things_ over here.”

“The thing with the squiggly halogen-looking tip.”

“…Right.” Lance bend down, picking up the strange, scythe-like tool with what looked to be a neon light. “This one, then?”

“Yup!” There was a buzzing sound beneath the panel once Pidge grabbed it. “Ok, a little bit here, and…ok! Gonna test it. Whatever you do, don’t press the reset button while we’re testing it, ok? That’s the big white button.”

“I know which one it is.” Lance pouted. “Geez, I’ve messed with the Mercury too, you know.”

“Good.” The buzzing stopped. “Well? Turn on the battery, dork!”

Lance looked at the contraption and frowned. It was part-Mercury, part-scraps that Pidge had cobbled together. Outside of the game system switches, there were still plenty of knobs to choose from that could be the battery. He picked one that was big and purple.

There was a yelp from beneath the panel.

“OW! Not that one!” A pause, followed by another yip. “No, wait— _no_ , good! That one’s the one! _Don’t_ turn it off!”

“Are you being electrocuted!?”

“Doesn’t matter, I’m fine, just hurry and flip the Mercury power switch!”

Lance blinked, looking over again where the pieces of the game system was on the contraption. The power knob was on the side, and he quickly pushed it over to the ON position.

At once, the bridge screen let out a hissing sound.

“…Uh…”

“Lance! The Mercury volume knob!” Pidge’s tone became excited. “Hurry! Crank it up!”

Lance stared at the screen, his hand absent-mindedly moving to the volume knob. He began pushing the volume up towards the ever-increasing numbers. First two, then four…hissing began to change into garbled noise of undetermined origin. He didn’t know how Pidge did it, and how it made any sense, but apparently, whatever the Mercury added to her invention, it was…working? Perhaps?

Finally, he got up to six, making his way to eight.

“ ** _…fert645t…vfvjf_ een _…_** ” Garbled noise slowly turned into a voice, and the panel started to show squiggling lines. The sound waves of talking. **“…will g _jjr_ er in Hel _rg4832_ Prime. State loca _45_ n of ship and situation.**”

“ **Affirming.** ” They were listening to a conversation. “ **En route to Helvcita Prime. The commander is there. _Zizifun_ confirmed in sight and making rendezvous. We will run interference—** “

“Ok, ok, turn it off!!” 

“Are…” Lance looked up at the screen. “You sure? We’re getting chatter—“

“Yes, positive!”

Sighing, Lance nevertheless turned the power knob to off, and the panel went silent and lineless. The next sound Lance heard was laughing, as Pidge crawled out from beneath. She stood up, brushing off her knees, and put her burnt hands on her hips, a grin of triumph on her face.

 

* * *

 

_“You sure you know what you’re doing, Gunderson?”_

_“Yes, I do!” Pidge stared at the large pile of parts in front of him. “When I talked to the Olkari again about what happened when we got surprised, and about the components you got from that technical dog guy…”_

_“Ah! Yes,” Coran fingered his moustache. “The Basenji prisoner...er, forgive me, Number Five, do proceed.”_

_“…Anyways, they suggested that the likeliest way that those pirates had sabotaged the Castle was through a…well, it’s a commhack for short. They managed to draw up a theoretical blueprint for us before we left, based on what Lance for the prisoner to admit.”_

_With that, Pidge brought the document up on her screen, then stepped back to let everyone else look._

_“See? The idea is a scrambler which can refract radio waves, changing its direction in multiple angles to the point where the wavelength can no longer move through space.”_

_"Then,” Allura’s eyes widened. “Are you saying these pirates…?”_

_"Can completely silence any other wavelength that isn’t their own! Thus, they are essentially halting radio transmissions without needing to jam them through conventional means, and are also able to substitute them with their own.” Coran paused, then nodded. “Which also means this machinery is likely able to block attempts at homing onto their ships through such radio waves. Really, how fascinating that these marauders invented something like this!”_

_“That’s a thing that’s possible!?”_

_“Hmm.” While Lance blanched at the implications, Hunk frowned. “You know, we haven’t seen or heard anything quite like that before, not even with the Galra. And you’d think the Galra would be all over that kind of technology, or…you know, going after these guys for it.”_

_“…Ok, yeah, that’s something I’m still confused about, too.” Lance calmed himself down, leaning on Pidge’s panel to look at the mock-up. Almost all of the specification information and words went right over his head as he scanned it. “I don’t know diddly about half the things Pidge works on and even I know the likes of Sendak would be drooling for this kind of hardware to use on their ships.”_

_“Maybe the Galra_ are _around? I mean, they did build that Yeşil facility…” Allura’s voice spoke up. “But why wouldn’t the Empire pounce on us then? Why send pirates?”_

_“Maybe they can’t, because we totally beat Zarkon.”_

_The smirk on Lance’s face as he turned to face Allura instantly faded when he saw her expression. She wasn’t angry at him, at least. But mentioning the fight clearly didn’t make her happy - not with the obvious costs associated with it._

…Right. _Lance rubbed the back of his neck._ Right, stupid as usual…

_“Or maybe the people of Suntala were right.” Hunk began to pace. “Maybe the Galra really are scared of the blue quintessence that keeps popping up around these parts. With the temperature that coming off of it, the times I came in contact with it, I’ve got to think its likely due to decay.”_

_“Decay?”?_

_“Mm. Decay heat.” Hunk stopped to look at Coran. “A, uh, side effect of a radioactive component?”_

_“Oh my. You refer to ” Coran rubbed his hands. “You believe it to be radioactive? Yes, I suppose that could be a reason for the Galra’s reticence in bringing in their full presence. Especially if its hazardous to_ them _.”_

 _“Yeah, well.” Lance felt Pidge’s glare on him. “We’d know more about this blue quintessence and why its such a problem if I could have gotten a_ sample _.”_

_“Yeah, like I was going to leave you to get blown up?” Lance rolled his eyes. “Yeah right, Squeaky.”_

_This caused Pidge to sputter, and the next thing Lance knew, he was being punched in his spleen._

_“You promised not to use that nickname ever again!!”_

_“Wait,” Lance heard Hunk speak, but it was difficult to think of a snappy response when he was doubled over in pain. “Lance nicknamed you Squeaky?”_

_“He used it one time and that was when there was a big spider on my pillow!” Lance got another thwap for – as far as he could tell – no reason other than Pidge felt like it. Uncool. “And I made him promise never to call me that again!”_

_“She…” Lance finally croaked out words. “Thought I put the spider there, but I didn’t. But…her scream was hilarious…”_

_“I wouldn’t have put it past you!”_

_“Ok. Kids.” Lance and Pidge immediately stopped at Hunk’s interruption of their argument. “C’mon, we need to figure this out. If we make this device, we need to create a quant-battery that can handle these specs. I can figure out the battery, but Pidge, I’m guessing you want to take a crack at making the commhack itself.”_

_“Oh, trust me!” Pidge cracked her knuckles. “I am totally going to take more than a crack.”_

 

* * *

 

“Well?”

“Huh?” Lance blinked. “Well, what?”

“You going to high-five me or what?” Squeaky Pidge held up her hand. “Or a fist bump? A pulse? Anything?”

“…Oh yeah.” Wait. She did it. She… “Give me a sec.”

He turned away, closing his eyes and taking a few breaths. Maybe he could get excited. Why not? It was a massive step in the right direction. Whatever would happen, they were going in a step in the right direction, it seemed. Maybe they would find Shiro and Keith. Maybe they could do this, after all.

He had to smile.

Yeah. He’d been one of the advocates of buying the Mercury, hadn’t he? And then, he’d helped test the commhack. Hey – that meant he’d actually helped. Maybe he could do this. 

“Ok.” He twirled around and jumped forward, throwing his hand out for the most awesome high-five he’d done since…well, since before Shiro disappeared from the cockpit. “YEAH! _TEAM GARRISON **HIGH FIIII**_ —“

He found himself slamming down on Pidge’s hand, before falling unceremoniously onto the ground face-first. As he lay, spread-eagle, he heard Pidge chuckle.

There was no malice or disappointment in it.

“Mrrrrgh…that was a bad idea…”

“You’re an idiot.” Pidge lifted his hand up and gently slapped hers onto it. “But whatever, good luck with the rest of your bridge shift.”

Her chuckle still echoed on the bridge as the door closed behind her.

_……..Worth it. I think._


	4. Iletim

_The quant-battery had been incredibly difficult to create. Hunk was pretty amazing when it came to creating it – though Pidge was certainly holding her own in creating the commhack, Hunk had been instrumental in ensuring the quant-battery was built, and there was no quintessence leak, which was apparently a common problem. All it took was housing a small Balmeran crystal._

_As it turned out, they hadn’t needed Shay's help with it. In fact, therw was a place in the Helvicta systems where uncontaminated crystals could be found. There was a shipyard and ‘recycling facility’ on a planet called Tersane, and it seemed that this was a hub where the Helvicta pirates built their fleet. They took pieces of ships they downed, of all types, and used them to build their own hybrid ships. Recycling, indeed._

_This time, they didn’t barge in and they didn’t assume the Helvicta wouldn’t respond if a distress signal was sent out. Lance made sure of that. He especially had to convince Pidge, since there could be blue quintessence down there and a sample was important! But Lance stood firm. No running into another pirate trap. This time, they’d wait for a window of opportunity to open._

_Really, they’d been careful the last several planets they’d gone to, which Lance also put his foot down with going in guns blazing, but here, especially, nothing could go wrong at all. Being surprised by a giant fleet while invading their shipyard would have made more problems, more possible damage, more repairs, and ultimately, more delay. There was only so much time they could waste, and they had to waste it right._

_It made sense to Lance to put it that way. And thankfully, everyone agreed with him._

_So they waited, planned, and went for a precise moment to strike. When a ship had already left the yard, it was boarded by more experienced pirates, leaving only the core group of builders on the planet. The Castle hung behind, as far from the vicinity of the planet’s scanners as possible, until it was time to attack._

_The facility didn’t know what hit them. They’d barely had time to react before the Paladins were on the ground with their Lions, cutting off their communications through a few well-placed laser blasts, and moving in to take prisoners of those inside and make batteries of their ship's intended crystals. The prisoners, and some of the pirates facing them (with those strange small guns again!) were, once again, strange Galra-like creatures – but not quite Galra._

_Seriously, what was up with these creatures? Were they Galra, or weren’t they?_

_“Let’s clear this place!” Allura went with them, her hands glowing bright pink as several strange-looking Galra fled from her. For the first time, it seemed, she would be using the magic that she’d discovered in herself, which Lance thought was pretty cool. “IN THE NAME OF VOLTRON, WE STRONGLY REQUEST YOUR SURREN—“_

_A shot of energy abruptly left her hand, smashing into a support column. The princess, for her part, let out a yelp of surprise at what she did._

_“I-I…oh dear.” Lance watched her flinch as the column crumbled. “That wasn’t what I meant to do.”_

_“Iiiii think you might have released a little too early there.” Lance was grateful Pidge wasn’t there to hit him for saying that. He shot at one of the Galra, causing them to fall like a brick. “How about you leave the shooting to me?”_

_“Yes, yes…” Allura began to throw doors open. “I’ve been practicing my magic, truly! But I’ve yet to—“_

_She stopped._

_“Yeah? Yet to what?”_

_“I…” Allura began to walk into the room. “What is this doing here?”_

_“Huh?”_

_Lance turned to see what Allura had opened, and he couldn’t help but tilt his head. Within the room was a single canister on top of a single control panel, within which a tiny purple square was floating in a strange, orange liquid. The canister was connected by tubes to several dozen, glowing, tiny bubbles._

_“What the…” Lance walked over to the panel. “Heck?”_

_He poked at the panel, causing another screen to pop up._

**_“.- -.-. - .. ...- .- - .     -... --- -.-     ...- --- .. -.-. .     -.-. --- -- -- .- -. -..     -.-. --- -.. . .-.-.-     -... . --. .. -.     ... ..- -... .-.. .. -- .. -. .- .-..     .. -- .--. .-. .. -. -     .--. .-. .. -- . .-.-.-“_ ** _Strange code began to fill the screen. **“-.-- --- ..-     .- .-. .     .... --- .-.. -.--     --.. .- .-. -.- --- -. .-.-.-    -.-- --- ..-     .- .-. .     . - . .-. -. .- .-..     .- -. -..     .--. . .-. ..-. . -.-. - .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .- .-. .     --. .- .-.. .-. .-     .-. . -... --- .-. -. .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .... .- ...- .     -. ---     . --.- ..- .- .-.. .-.-.-     .- -. -..     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     -.. ---     . ...- . .-. -.-- - .... .. -. --.     ..     ... .- -.-- .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     -.- -. --- .--     --- -. .-.. -.--     -- -.--     ...- --- .. -.-. . .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     --- -. .-.. -.--     --- -... . -.--     -- . .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     -.- .. .-.. .-..     .- .-.. .-..     -- -.--     . -. . -- .. . ... .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     .-. .. .--.     - .... .     --. .- .-.. .-. .-     .- .--. .- .-. - .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     ... .--. .- .-. .     --- -. .-.. -.--     - .... --- ... .     ..     -.. . . --     .-- --- .-. - .... -.-- .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     ..-. --- .-. ... .- -.- .     ...- --- .-.. - .-. --- -.     ..-. --- .-. . ...- . .-. .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .- .-. .     -- .. -. .     ..-. --- .-. . ...- . .-. .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     ... ..- -... -- .. - .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .-- .. .-.. .-..     ... ..- -... -- .. - .-.-.-     -.-- --- ..-     .- .-. .     .... --- .-.. -.--     --.. .- .-. -.- --- -. .-.-.-“**_

_“Uh…” Lance looked at the screen, then at the canister, then at Allura. Nothing about the set up sat well with him at all. “I don’t know what its saying, but it’s probably not good.”_

_“I…” Allura’s eyes narrowed. “It’s code of some kind. Nothing I’ve seen before. Why would the pirates be making such a thing here?”_

_“Well, I don’t know.” Lance shuddered as he brought up his bayard. “But you know what? Not taking the chance to find out!”_

_“Wait—!”_

_With that, he aimed his bayard rifle and fired, ignoring whoever was shouting at him. The canister shattered, and the chip fell onto the console, which was then smashed into several pieces by the butt of his rifle._

_“Lance!” Suddenly Pidge was smacking the back of his head. “What are you doing!? That could have been important!”_

_“_ OW _!” Even under his helmet, it hurt. “What was that for, Pidge!?”_

_Wait._

_“And how did you get here so fast!?”_

_“It doesn’t matter. You just broke something that could have helped us stop the corsairs! I could have used it for the commhack.”_

_“With…all respect, Pidge? I don’t know about that.” Allura looked at the panel and began to back away. “Paladins, you…might want to get out of the room. Right now.”_

_“Huh?”_

_“Look.” Allura, still backing away from the console and out the room, pointed. “Just…!”_

_The two Paladins turned to look at the panel. Shattering the canister caused the tubes to be loosened and freed, and the bubbles stopped glowing. Soon enough, several black spots began to file and climb their way out of the broken ends._

Bugs?

_The spots began to converge on one another, slowly becoming a bigger black spot. As this happened, a strange, low, clicking sound began to emanate through the room. As the sound became louder, and started pounding into his ears, Lance suddenly started to feel strangely sleepy._

_“Huh…” He shook his head and began to rub his eyes. “Woah, is it just me or—“_

_“…Run.” The next thing he knew, he and Pidge were being scooped up by Allura and tossed out of the room. “Go, go go_ go _!! Get away to anywhere but this room!!”_

_As Lance proceeded to be carried off (why was he so tired suddenly? What was that clicking sound?...) he turned one last time towards the room, only to find  himself deposited on the floor. Allura ran back to the room, slamming the doors closed, following that up by throwing every nearby crate at it to make a giant, piled barricade. She finally proceeded to blast the scene as much as possible with her magic until the entire area – support beams and all - was a pile of rubble, all caved in on the room._

_"Uh..." Pidge and Lance blinked at the carnage the princess wrought. "Isn't that a bit overkill?"_

_"No!" Both were suddenly picked up under Allura's arms again and hustled away. "Retreat from this area! Coran, if you see Hunk coming towards where we're leaving on BLIP, tell him to not go this way! Its contaminated!!"_

_"_ Contaminated _!?"_

_It wasn’t until after they got back on the Castle, Hunk triumphantly carrying several crystals, enough to make a dozen quant-batteries, that Allura explained what she meant. The black spots were a species of alien fleas that, en masse, could control someone’s brain once they burrowed into the body. They had been trying to lull Lance and Pidge to sleep, in order to accomplish this. They were incredibly dangerous and difficult to control or cure, even 10,000 years ago. They were once contained on a single planet, in the time of Altea, but that didn't seem to be the case, anymore._

_It was thus likely, Coran also had to note once he was informed of what was found, that the chip was being processed, to allow the addition of the fleas’ blood in a crystalized form within the chip's circuitry. Thus, the piezoelectric properties of said blood could be very slowly deposited through electric shocks into someone’s bloodstream without them even realizing it. In other words, a chip that could potentially control minds with brutal efficiency. If such a thing could be weaponized, who knew what the pirates were planning with it?_

_Pidge later said that maybe Lance was right about destroying the chip, though she still wished she could have gotten a look at the chip beforehand._

 

* * *

 

Lance just stared at the screen panel, sighing. Still nothing. He brought up a panel, a large figure of a monstrous ship floating in front of him. The ‘Primary Schematic’ of the junk ships the Helvicta were making - Pidge had managed to download it while they were on Tersane. He’d looked over it a thousand times, trying to figure out the ships themselves, to make sure that when they faced them again, they’d be able to stop them. He had ideas – the very nature of cobbled-together ships with different hull densities presented some juicy potential weaknesses – but with no way to act on them. Not without actual ships in front of him.

Nothing to do outside, and he couldn’t leave his position, either. In other words, he was bored and growing moreso as the vargas ticked by. He wasn’t tired, either, so even if he’d wanted to sleep, that just wasn’t going to happen.

**_~My Paladin.~_ **

_~Mmm.~_ Lance flopped his head onto the communications control panel, banging his head slightly. _~’M pretty bleh right now.~_

**_~Do you feel better?~_ **

Of course, she had seen his thoughts. When had she crept back into his mind? It didn’t matter.

 _~Nope.~_ Lance slowly peeked his head back up. He closed his eyes.  _~Okay, maybe a little. I’m still bored, though.~_

 ** _~Don’t worry.~_** Oh now the nuzzling actually felt like it was on the side of his brain, with a bump of a metal, cat-like snout following. **_~You did the right thing. There is no telling what that thing was going to be used for.~_**

_~The chip? I guess…~_

The fingers on one hand began to tap on the panel in a rhythm on the panel. The pointer finger of the other slowly went towards his nose. He wasn’t generally a nosepicker, outside of times when he was particularly keen on annoying Pidge back in the Garrison. Still, when stressed, the itch in his nose flared, and the temptation was there to mine for gold. In the end, he decided against it, scratching his cheek instead. He had no tissues to hide the evidence, anyways.

_~But…that doesn’t mean anything. I mean, I literally unleashed deadly brainwashing space fleas and they nearly got me. And there was so much stuff about that place that still made no sense, you know?~_

**_~But it was your plan which allowed us to stop the Tersane operation without retaliation from the corsairs. It also allowed for the creation of the quant-battery for the commhack by the Yellow Paladin, did it not?~_ **

He was quiet, again, at his Lion’s question. It was true, he couldn’t deny those things. And normally, he’d bask in the glory of knowing those actions were all on him. That he totally came up with the ideas and saved the day and that made him The Hero Of The Day.

Yet at the same time he couldn’t be happy with it. Maybe it was because he didn’t have Keith’s face to rub it into. Maybe it was because he didn’t have Shiro commenting on how proud he was about it. Or maybe he just missed them both, as well as the first two things. They were his teammates, after all.

…No, of course it wasn’t that last one, surely. Especially not with Keith. (He'd at least deny it if anyone asked.)

 _~Do…you really think we’ll find them?~_ After the silence, Lance sent the question through his link. _~Do you think…_ I’ll _find them?~_

 ** _~Of this, I have no doubt.~_** There were images of smiles, of flowers, of a hot springs, a conch shell. The sound of waves. Two silhouettes, one Keith-shaped, one like Shiro, on the beach, wind blowing through their hair. **_~I can sense my fellows’ efforts. Even if they cannot feel their Paladins, their links to them have not severed.~_**

That wasn’t the answer Lance was expecting.

_~Wait, but, their Lions went all inactive—~_

**_~To you, they are silent, in their caves on this Castle. But, it’s simply not so. They are still searching, waiting for their minds to touch again. If their Paladins were truly gone, you would already have new teammates.~_ **

They are still searching. Lance’s eyes widened, and he looked down at his hands. At some point during his conversation, they had started to clench.

 _~'They are still searching.'~_ The Blue Lion’s words reverberated. ~ _Then—~_

“You awake, Lance?”

“Huh?” Lance turned to see Hunk walking in. “Geez, what are you doing up? It’s still the middle of the night cycle!”

“I slept!” Hunk protested, pouting. “I just can’t get _back_ to sleep. Besides, we figured you’d want company.”

“’We’?”

“Yes.” Lance nearly started as Allura herself walked in, almost in response to the question. “’We’.”

“Uh…ok then.”

Lance looked left, then right. There were two chairs called to the main comm panel, and now, there were three people. Shrugging, he stood up and crossed his arms with a shrug.

“No no.” And he was just as quickly sat down gently – but firmly – by Hunk. “I’m not staying too long. I just want to see the commhack working!”

With that, Hunk turned the knob, and instantly the screen came to life again.

“ **…coming to Helvicta XVI orbit. Standby for at—** “

“Eeeeeeeeehehehee!” Hunk snapped it off, excitement sparkling in his eyes. “Awesome! I’m so glad my suggestion worked! This is so amazing!”

“As am I.” Allura folded her hands, smiling. “Now, we can listen in on the pirates’ conversations as we please, and even jam their communications when we decide to face them again. And the communications of other opponents in the future…!”

“Actually,” Hunk held up a hand. “We can turn it back on right now, if we want! Just give me five minutes, I want to get Pidge’s tablet to take pictures of us doing it.”

With a playful glee, Hunk quickly bounded off the bridge, a happy whistle on his lips. With such infectious happiness, Lance couldn’t help but smirk.

“Oh, by the way, Lance.” Lance turned back to the Princess, who quietly straightened herself up in her seat and clearing her throat. “I wish to ask your opinion on something.”

“Yeah, sure.” Lance brought his hands behind his back. “What’s up?”

“It’s quite simple really.” Allura looked up at the panel, her face set in quiet contemplation. “Why do you think your contributions as of late haven’t been enough?”

“I—“

Lance’s head swerved over to look at Allura, eyes wide. He wasn’t expecting that question. Not at all. Really, he’d have expected her to ask him out before _that_ question.

“…um.”

“Lance.” Allura turned to face him, her eyes narrowed. “I’m well aware that these many spicolian movements past have been stressful on our team. Almost unbearably so, without the ability to form Voltron against these criminals. But don’t think I haven’t noticed the change in you as well. Getting injured during training, trying to take on more than you’re able to. You’ve become quiet, less like…well, yourself.”

Lance quietly looked down at her words.

“Coran told me about your conversation before he retired for this cycle.” Of _course_ Coran told her. “He told me you were… _modest_. That you thought you weren’t doing enough for us.”

His cheeks began to redden, as his whole head began to turn from Allura. The wall was looking pretty amazing right now.

“It’s—I mean…“

_True. It’s true, though._

“Lance, that…”Allura rubbed her temple. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. That’s not like you at all! Not with everything you’ve done for the team since Keith disappeared.”

“Ugh.” Lance couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “If you want me to be less serious, I ca—“

“I don’t what you to be ‘less serious’, Lance. I want you to be _you_.”

The next several ticks were like something out of a surreal dream. Allura leaned forward and grabbed one of Lance’s hands from behind his head, clasping it, to his surprise, with her own.

“You being you is what’s helped us since Keith disappeared.” Her eyes were intense as she stared into his wide ones. “You can’t really think you’ve done nothing, or not enough, for the team since this whole ordeal has started.”

“If I haven’t done nothing,” Lance couldn’t help the bitterness seeping into his voice. “Then why haven’t we found them yet? If it was Shiro or Keith looking, we—“

“Stop. Stop this moment.” The hand clasp became tight enough to turn Lance’s fingers purple, as Allura’s tone became angry. “Stop comparing yourself to Shiro and Keith! You are not Shiro and you are not Keith!”

It hurt. It hurt hearing her say that. Lance’s eyes shut tightly hearing that, as if it simply reasserted what he thought. As if it confirmed what he’d thought, the entire time.

_I’ll never be…good enough._

“…Right. I get it—“

“And that’s why we’ve survived as long as we have without them. Your intelligence and your foresight, and your cool under pressure.”

_Wait. What?_

“And don't try to protest, because its true." Her eyes bore into his as she spoke. "Who stopped me from killing that prisoner the first cycle? Who saved us on Yeşil when we were surprised by the main fleet of the pirates? Who got the information that helped the Olkari discern a working blueprint for the machine? And who came up with the plan that disabled the shipyard on Tersane? And who’s the one who first gave us the idea for the bridge watch that you’re doing right now, even if we didn't implement it that time? That wasn’t Pidge. That wasn’t Hunk. And it certainly wasn’t Keith or Shiro. That was _you_.”

Lance’s mouth moved at this, but no sound came out of it. Was she saying this? She _was_ , wasn't she?

“I’m sorry that…you can’t see that.” Allura slowly stood up. “But it is the truth. Whether or not you wish to acknowledge it, I felt someone ought to tell you. So, now that I’ve said my piece…”

“Allura.” Lance finally found words that he could form. “I…just…”

“Yes?”

“…I just want Keith and Shiro back.”

“We all do, don’t we?”

“I want my _friends_ back.” Lance sighed. There, he said it. “Shiro keeps disappearing and…then Keith, and…I could have stopped him. I could have told him don’t go in further. Get back in his Lion and get out of there. I…I could have _stopped_ him, couldn’t I?”

He nearly jumped at the sudden touch of the princess’ hands on his shoulder. He hadn’t expected it, and the long night and lack of sleep over the vargas were making his sensory perception more sensitive than in the day. He relaxed, though, once he processed it was just her hand.

“We all have things we can’t change. I know this, for certain.” The hand withdrew after a moment. “The only way we can do is keep going forward to fix what we can, even if we can’t do it right away. Just…try and keep that in mind, and don’t compare yourself to someone who isn’t here anymore.”

_Heh. Yeah. I know, I’m being ridiculous._

What did Lance have to worry about, compared to Allura? Here he was, whining about how he couldn’t compare to their two missing friends, who might at least still be alive somewhere. She’d lost her entire civilization, with no chance of getting them back.

_But…I know I’m just…me. I know you’re right, Allura. And…and I just hate it, right now, like this._

“Hey, Allura?”

“Hm?” Allura, almost to the door, turned back towards him, eyes wide. “What is it, Lance?”

“…if you tell anyone I said I see Keith as a friend.” Lance pointed to her, eyebrows raised. “I’ll totally deny it. Just as a heads-up.”

“Of course you will.” Was that an eye-roll? The princess just totally eye-rolled at him. She was smiling, though, so at least he was doing something right. “That’s more like the Lance I remember. Now, I believe you still have four vargas left of bridge duty, yes?”

“Four vargas?” Lance pouted. “…I thought I had three left.”

“Good night, Lance.”

And with that, Allura was off the bridge, leaving Lance alone once more.

**_~My Paladin.~_ **

Lance sighed.

 ** _~There is nothing wrong,~_** as quick flashes of Lance spitting out juice proffered by Coran, and sleeping in late at the Garrison, and booger-tagging a stairway while visiting his great-grandmother’s old apartment on _el Cuchillo de Zanja_ with his father, and his imagined moment of ultimate victory with Voltron, everyone giving him a thumbs-up, went through his head, and so much else, **_~with being you.~_**

Lance leaned on his hands, his elbows on the comm’s panel.

 _~I know. I just don’t feel it.~_ Lance felt his eyes cross as he concentrated on a single pinpoint light on the corner. The pinpoint turned into a hazy circle with lines shooting across it. _~That’s the thing, isn’t it? I don’t feel like being normal makes someone a hero. It doesn’t make me a hero like everyone else, you know? Especially now, with two guys down. Two guys who are…way way_ way _better at this than I am.~_

 ** _~But that doesn’t matter. What they can do isn’t important. Not to_** **me _.~_** There is the slightest hint of sternness – and oddly, pride – in the Lion’s response. **_~You are a Paladin. You are_ my _Paladin, the Blue Paladin. You may fear what you see in yourself, but I don’t.~_**

Flashes of their first meeting. Of battles fought together, Lance discovering the Lion’s powers. Their time after the wormhole, watching as Lance stumbled onto a solution to the Baku’s brainwashing, and saving Hunk. The battle against Zarkon, forming Voltron for that last time. The time Lance expelled broccoli-esque flatulence into the prisoner’s air supply and got him to talk.

…Wait, she actually _liked_ that he did that?

 **_~For me, there is no other equal in the universe. No matter how normal you might think yourself or anything else otherwise. I chose you, and no one else. That includes the Red and Black Paladin! The Red and Black Lions may have them, but you are_ ** **mine _.~_**

_~Yours…~_

Lance closed his eyes, smiling quietly. A sad smile. But, a smile, nevertheless. His Lion sure seemed sure of it – was lecturing him like his mother about it. Maybe he would believe it himself, one day.

_~You’re probably—~_

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud, deep honking. Instantly Lance’s attention was up on the screen. There was a general distress call, being picked up by the Castle. The coordinates began to zip onto the screen, in alien numbers that Lance still didn’t know the meaning of. It didn’t matter. His bridge watch worked.

“Where’s the—oh, come on—!” Lance kept smacking lights on the panel, until, finally, the panel lit up. “Ok, ok! Got it. I think? Hello! Hello?”

**_~My Paladin.~_ **

_~What?~_

**_~You forgot to open response audio frequency. Upper left corner.~_ **

“…Oh, uh.” Lance’s eyes squinted, as he spoke out loud and in his head. “Right, I knew that, I was just testing…you…”

**_~You’ve never had to use it before. You didn’t even know it was there, did you?~_ **

“…No I didn’t but I do now! And see, there’s the other channel button.” Smack.  “Boom! We’re live and in living…!”

The screen on the bridge lit up with the signal acceptance symbol, followed by a single oscillation wave. No visual, then? Unusual, but nothing that stood out to Lance as suspicious.

“Ok, maybe not in living color. Hello?” No response. Lance frowned with a yawn. “Hellooo? Hey, this is the Castle of Lions! We’re responding to your distress call, who is this? What’s the problem?”

“ **…Lance…!** ”

Oh. _Oh._ A response. Any thought of sleeping was now gone, and Lance was sitting up, alert.

“ ** _LANCE!_** ” A deep – but not too deep - and husky male voice began to fill the bridge, its tone happy, relieved, yet at the same time tinged with worry and fear. “ **Lance, it’s me! Can you hear me!? We’re in trouble…!** ”

“Wh—? Yeah, I hear—“

He could hear the bridge door open, and Allura’s shoes clacking on the ground. (So much for her sleeping as well.) Lance watched the screen, as the info on the distress signal popped up on it as well. The coordinates were deep in what the Paladins now knew to be Helvicta territory. Very, very deep – in fact, Lance realized as his eyes quickly went through the data popping up on the screen, it was right where the primary Helvicta system – the center of the pirates’ territory – was said to be.

The signal itself was also not what Lance was expecting. It wasn’t just any old ship that was calling them. The transmission call sign was that of a _Galra_ ship, and not even just any old Galra ship. It was right there, on the screen. No camouflaging, no subterfuge through other people, no attempting to scramble or cut the signal. There was no mistaking it.

The distress signal was from a ship of the Galra Empire’s military, and they were asking for help. From _them_. From _him_.

“Wait a minute…”

That was when it hit Lance. The person on the other end was calling him by name, and it felt familiar, somehow. A member of the Galra, yet it was someone who somehow knew his name—a Blade member? A spy of some other kind? How many people across the universe actually _knew_ his first name, now that he thought of it?

“How did you know my—“

“Lance?” As Allura body-checked the panel, standing right next to him, the bridge doors opened again, another, less straight set of feet staggering in. Coran? That herbal drink was really doing a number on him, even if he was startled awake by the alarm. “I heard the beacon alarm, wh—“

Lance watched as her eyes narrowed at the information in front of her. Her eyes read, took everything in, and her mouth set to a frown.

“…Wait. That’s a Galra ship’s signal! It might be a trap…”

A trap. Yes. He couldn’t deny it, it was very possible. It was Galra and it was military and it could mean anything. He could tell Allura was leaning towards the same conclusion; at the same time, he could see her hands grasp the panel tightly, shaking. She was deliberating.

So was he. It was so clearly a trap. It had to be. No Galra Empire ship would _ever_ call Voltron for help, especially not in such a blatant manner.

Yet. His _name_.

The Galra speaking to them right then knew _his name_. Lance. Not Paladin, but _Lance_.

“Coran?” After quickly turning her head at a sudden, loud sound (which was simply poor, half-awake Coran tottering into the nearest chair with a loud bang and landing on the floor face-first.), she shook her head turned back to Lance, expression conflicted. “What do you think? Should we ignore it?”

“ **Allura! WAIT! _Please_!** ” Lance didn’t even have a chance to respond before the voice began to shout again, more desperate than before. They knew her name as well? “ **This isn’t a ruse! I’m on a ship of civilian workers, the GESS _İrem_ , and we’re being attacked by corsairs! You _need_ to come to our coordinates _immediately_! Please, acknowledge!** ”

That voice. It was Galra. It was definitely Galra. But there was something in the cries for help that Lance couldn’t ignore.

“ **Kılıç.** ” There was a second voice, this one deeper, and more feminine-sounding. Fainter, as if further away. Also, it sounded ready to kill whoever was talking to the Castle. “ **Get away from that console _right now_.** ”

 _Kihlick?_ That was his name?

...No. No. That wasn’t his name. Not the name he was associating with the voice. But it couldn’t be. It was impossible. But it sounded almost just like him. Move the voice up half an octave or so, lessen the obvious gruffness, and Lance could _swear_ it almost sounded like…

No…it _was_ —

“Wait, wait a tick.” Lance’s breath hitched as he stood up, and he could hear the slow realization in Allura’s voice as well, as her own mind analyzed just what – who – they were talking to. “That sounds like—!!”

“ **Yes, _yes_!!** ”

_...Oh my god._

“ **Allura, it’s me!** "

_It’s really him._

" **Its _Kei_ —**“

Then, just as abruptly as the voice had come, the voice stopped speaking.

“Keith!?” Lance was up on his feet. “Keith, can you hear me!? I know it’s you—!”

“We…we’ve lost the signal…” Allura was frantically pounding her fingers over the panel, to little avail. “We’ve _lost_ the signal…!!”

_No…no no no no—!!_

“…Keith.”

Lance’s voice began to raise into a scream.

“ _KEITH!!_ ”

The next thing he knew, his fists were screaming in pain, the impact shooting through up to his elbows. He didn’t realize he’d hit the panel, not for several moments. He didn’t care. His pain, right at that moment, didn’t matter in the face of what had just happened. What he’d realized.

That was Keith. That had to be Keith. And it meant that Keith was alive. He was _alive_ , and…he didn’t…he sounded like...but _why_?

“...I got it.”

Allura spoke again, and Lance looked up at her, eyes weary. Her eyes, meanwhile, were lit with inner fire. A smile began to slowly form on her face, and an expression of hope raised her eyebrows up as her eyes widened.

“I _got_ it. Look!” The screen let off a ping, and a map suddenly appeared. Allura began to swing her fists, hopping up and down. “Our systems saved the coordinates!”

She let out a whooping shout, and practically began to dance in place as she began to slam her own hands down on the panel. Her feet moved in a boxer’s shuffle – one foot forward, one back, then the other back, then forward again, all on hopping legs.

“ _We have the coordinates!!_ ” Pressing another button, she began to shout, even as she danced. “PALADINS! To the bridge immediately with suits on and bayards ready. We have an emergency situation! This is not a test!!”

“I…” _Deep breaths, Lance. Keep it together._ “Allura. That was him. That was Keith.”

“It was.”

“And you just said—“

“Lance.” Allura breathed deeply. “Go and get your suit on. We're going to those coordinates.”

“I…” Lance nodded, breathing quickly. “Ok, right. Bee-arr-bee.”

_This...this is really happening._

Lance staggered off the bridge, taking deep breaths. Get to his rooms. Get suited up. Get back to the bridge, and—

 ** _~My Paladin.~_** He felt the excitement in the Lion’s voice. It was pretty infectious. _**~It’s all right. Go ahead.~**_

_~Oh, don’t worry, I will! Just…not yet.~_

Though he smiled, and practically skipped once he got into the hallway, he at least had the decency to wait until he was in his room before he began to scream and hop around and jump like an idiot. He totally was allowed to let loose for a few ticks. The suit would be gotten and put on in time. He’d get into game mode for whatever was to come. But now? He wanted this moment – _needed_ it.

He was the one who had been on duty, so that meant he caught the distress signal. Him, and his normal, fart-filled self. He was the one who responded, when Keith called.

That, at that moment, was more than enough.


	5. Savaş

When Lance finally got back to the bridge, suit on and helmet in hand, Pidge and Hunk were there. Coran was sleeping at his chair – it seemed no one thought it a good idea to wake him up and make him do much in his impaired state – and Allura was still doing her odd little dance.

“Good job, Lance.” Hunk flashed a grin and a thumbs-up. “You’re late.”

“I don’t caaaare.” Well…he did. A little. But that wasn’t important. “Man, I can’t wait to get Keith back after kicking some Helvicta butt. I’ve got a couple choice words for the nerd, not contacting us before this! Man, if he thinks he’s in trouble _before_ we get there…!”

“Yeah, well,” Pidge poked Allura’s leg. “We’re not going anywhere until we’ve made sure Allura’s got how the commhack works down. Princess, you paying attention?”

“Absolutely!” Allura finally stopped her dance, bending down. “It’s as you said, use the ‘volume’ knob to change frequencies, and use the ‘reset’ button to override the set frequency. If there’s an attempt to stop the override by using a different oscillation length, simply slide the knob to that frequency and repeat hitting the reset button. That’s it, correct?”

“Yup. That’s it!”

“Man, I didn’t think we’d be using the commhack so fast.” Hunk nodded, rubbing his chin. “But hey, nothing like scrambling the pirates’ radios right back the way they did to us!”

“Indeed. Revenge for Yeşil.” The chuckle from Pidge was…well, scary, even knowing how scary Pidge could get. “As long as the Helvicta’s radios are scrambled, they won’t be able to coordinate. _We’ll_ be getting the surprise on _them_ , this time!”

“So then we’ll need to be radio silent until we're in a position to attack them. If they figure out we’re here before we can scramble them, it won’t work.” Lance brought up a finger, then rubbed his hands gleefully at his next thought. "But if it does work? Honestly, I can only imagine the face of that creepy-sounding Galra when we swoop in and cream his ships! Heheheh.”

“Yes, this is true. We must have the element of surprise on our side for this to work.” Looking back at Lance, Allura’s eyes widened. “Ah, yes. Once I’ve properly overridden their communications, we can break radio silence and do what we need to do.. I’ll make sure to say something to signal you of that.”

“And the Castle?” Lance looked up at the screen, his smirk faltering. “No offense, but I…it might be an idea to stay back on this one, regardless of how we pull this off.”

“I’ll have the shields up at full power before I go in, Lance.” Coran’s snore punctuated through Allura’s response. “It won’t be like the last time we faced these outlaws.”

“I know that the Castle'll prepared and all for battle, but what I’m saying is,” Lance waved a hand. “Our Lions are way more mobile than the Castle is, and not as big or easy a target for their ships to hit. Plus, it’s easier to spot and it would ruin our surprise advantage!”

“Lance does have a point.” Hunk swept his hand through his hair. “The Lions are smart enough that they can fly themselves with minimal energy and stay under the radar. The Castle can’t do anything like that outside of a complete shutdown. It might be better to stay out of battle, and come in as a last resort.”

“…Then…I’ll be staying beyond their ships’ known sensor range. If it looks like the battle goes ill…then I'll come in.” Taking a deep breath, Allura turned back to the main control panel. “But, I’m sure it won’t. In the meantime, get ready! We’re about to jump to the coordinates Keith's distress call came from. The teludav has been activated…”

 

* * *

 

They made sure not to be in the Lions when they jumped through the wormhole. As outlandish and impossible as it would have been inside the Castle, it would have been their luck if the wormhole somehow changed mid-warp and they were once more in other parts of the universe. They could get to their Towers when they were where they needed to be.

The first thing that met them when they entered the Helvicta Prime system was blue. Bright, deep blue light, from a massive sun, just a shade lighter than the blue quintessence that the Paladins had come to associate with this area of space. Seeing it gave Lance a chill down his spine, as he recalled the words that described the unique properties of the blue quintessence. The Blue.

_Demonic. Evil. Deadly for many. And those who didn’t die…_

**_~My Paladin!~_** Lance was on his way to the Blue Tower when, suddenly, his Lion began to shout. Visions of the Red Lion began to flash in front of him. **_~She awaits her Paladin. She is with us, desiring to accompany us.~_**

 _~The Red Lion…!~_ Lance looked at Hunk and Pidge; judging by their abrupt change of expression from determination to surprise, they were also being contacted by their Lions as they were leaving the bridge. _~She’s coming with us?~_

 ** _~She senses danger to her Paladin.~_** Even from where they were, they could hear the roar of four Lions echoing through the Castle. **_~She will help us. She will speak to her Paladin. She feels his mind nearby.~_**

“Is he ok?!”

Lance turned to look at Hunk, who had shouted without warning. Looking at Lance, then at the bemused Pidge, the larger Paladin started to turn red.

“Eheh…oops.”

“Ha,” Pidge mumbled with a snort. “Use your _indoor_ psychic voice, Hunk!”

 _~…Well,~_ Lance may as well have asked for himself, anyways _. ~_ Is _Keith ok?~_

 ** _~…I do not know.~_** The Blue Lion’s voice rumbled quietly as he made his way, separating from Pidge and Hunk. **_~The Red Lion senses him through their link, but she is not close enough to speak to him personally. Still…from here, she can sense that something is different with him. She is unsure what has changed.~_**

 _~Different?~_ Once his hangar doors opened, Lance double-timed it to his Lion’s opening mouth. _~Not a_ bad _different, right?~_

 ** _~As I said, I do not know, and she is unable to discern the exact nature of the difference.~_** He hopped in, sliding into his seat before it zoomed up to the cockpit. **_~Don’t worry. We will learn soon enough.~_**

_~Got it.~_

Lance watched as his cockpit came to life with bright blue lights. In front of him, the Tower opened to the hangar – and beyond that, deep space. Taking a deep breath as his Lion began to walk forward, he closed his eyes and slumped into his chair. He began counting to ten, letting himself think of the fun ways he could wallop on Keith for leaving them for so long. Maybe he’d put shaving cream on his space ice cream. Keith ate space ice cream, right? Or maybe he’d go the more gentlemanly route and try to do a Shiro lecture about how trying to get oneself stupidly killed on a pirate ship of unknown origin, and then getting captured, was really, really, really, really, _really_ stupid even for Keith.

Or he could just find a way to fart into Keith’s healing pod if Keith was injured. Worked wonders on prisoners – maybe Keith would develop a subconscious fear of never going on stupid solo missions while worrying his teammates ever agai—oh, that caused the Blue Lion to show a picture of a laughing cat at the word _fart_. Well, at least _he_ got the Lion with a sense of humor!

Anyways, Lance found his thought drifting back to the plan at hand. Radio silence. They needed to _not_ communicate to one another at all – a first for Voltron’s Paladins – for their surprise attack to work.

**_~Hey, Blue, go ahead and minimize your energy output in whatever systems you can, ok? Less energy being used, less likely we’ll be picked up on scanners before we’re in the thick of it. Just keep whatever you need to move and whatnot on until Allura signals us.~_ **

**_~Confirmed, my Paladin.~_** The lights on his console began to dim to near-imperceptible levels of light. **_~Shutting down weapon mainlines and secondary engines. Primary light systems off. Basic propulsion and air systems active. Preparing for echolation mapping. I will take primary control until we are close enough to strike.~_**

With that, the Blue Lion was out in space, quietly stalking through the void away from the sun. Lance could feel a shift in his mechanical feline steed’s back behind him; she was activating her sonic weapon. Good – the sonic waves could accurately scan the area for him and wouldn’t be picked up like radar or anything similar would be.

It occurred to him that, somehow, his Lion's power worked in space, even when sound otherwise didn't and couldn't. He decided it was because the Blue Lion was just that awesome and magical, and left it at that. The truth was probably complicated and magic and advanced technology and probably something involving quintessence and _blah blah blah_.

Back to the mission.

 ** _~We shall pick up our enemy’s numbers now.~_** The faint console screen began to line up with several dozen dots, shaped like a crescent moon. The moon formation seemed to surround a single, solitary dot. ** _~You shall have a visual in approximately five ticks.~_**

“…Geez!”

As the ticks went by, the full scale of the situation was finally laid bare in front of him, and no doubt to the other Paladins, at least visually. The fleet of the Helvicta Corsairs floated over a massive, glowing green planet, all surrounding a single ship. Half the corsair ships were the monstrous junk ships that Lance was, by now, familiar with, with the rest being smaller junk ships, with a few vessels on the outskirts being basic Galra warships – tiny things, compared to the junk ships. Probably intended to run interference in case the prey tried to escape, much like when the Castle had been attacked.

The magical awesome Blue Lion sonar picked up a more precise number, with many dots faintly coming up on his panels – there were quite a few small ships that he couldn’t pick up by eye, and were easily hidden by the shadow of the larger monsters that were clearly the fleet’s flagships otherwise. Even then, there was one ship in particular that was larger than every other ship in front of him – twice as large at least. The mother ship of the fleet, likely. The place where the pirates’ ruler had to be.

Meanwhile, the ship being surrounded en masse was another junk ship. It was similar in size to the larger junk ships, though certainly not as big as the mother ship. On its prow was the top and sides of a Galra ship, which seemed to comprise its bridge area.

“Just how many ships in your fleet do you people need for this kind of operation?” Lance mumbled as he crossed his arms, staring at the scene. “That ship being cornered must be it. The, uh, Ear Worm, right?”

 ** _~There_** **was _another ship here, before.~_** A few blips appear on the map near the captured ship. **_~My sensors are picking up debris.~_**

“Debris?” Lance’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean—“

**_~Do not fear, my Paladin. The Red Lion is still speaking to her Paladin. He wasn’t on that vessel when it was destroyed.~_ **

“Oh.” Lance took a breath. His heart sure was beating fast from that unfortunate revelation. “Right, yeah. Thanks for the tidbit. How close do you think we can get before they spot us?”

 ** _~They haven’t spotted us yet,~_** the response is almost teasing. **_~Perhaps we should get in closer.~_**

“Heheh.” Lance smirked. “I like how you’re thinking. Might get a head start on freezing their weaponry when we get the signal.”

Even as the Blue Lion flew, though, Lance felt his own heart refuse to stop beating fast. This could go wrong. There was so much that could go wrong. He was practically flying right on top of an enemy that had no problem utterly annihilating Voltron, and one bad move could doom them, the Castle, Keith, and anyone else who was on that ship with Keith.

Not that he actually cared much about those people. For all he knew, the ‘civilians’ on the ship were all pirates, too. Or Galra military (GESS stood for Galra Empire...something something, right?) who had tortured and starved the mullet-headed nerd for all he knew about Voltron and Earth and who knew what else. It could still be a trap. A crazy elaborate trap, and Keith was brainwashed to hate everyone on the Castle, and that was why the Red Lion was saying he was different.

Hey, anything was possible.

“Hey, Lion. Mind if I run something with you while we’re out here?”

**_~Of course, my Paladin.~_ **

“You know that I’ve been looking over that basic schematics we got on these weird junk ships.” Lance rubbed his chin. “I’ve been thinking about them. Those things have a lot of ship plating over its area, but…the ships they used are all wildly different, and probably have vastly different hull densities depending on the maker of the ship and the materials used. Not to mention, the way these things are built probably means they’re not too stable when put to the test.”

 ** _~You believe that the hull, as a result of the strange design choice of smashing downed ships together to make a bigger ship is…~_** The Lion was listening. **_~Not very strong?~_**

“Would explain why these pirates heavily favor surprise attacks, even with all their numbers. And why they haven’t attacked us much since Yeşil, even knowing we’re in the area. I mean, even though we _have_ been careful about our movements, it’s still obvious we’re here, you know? They probably have to be just as careful, knowing we can actually fight back and inflict real damage on them, unlike the people and planets they terrorize.”

Lance clicked a button on his panel, allowing the basic blueprint of the archetypal junk ship they'd gotten to faintly pop up in front of him.

“The pirates have to rely on the ship pieces they have on hand since they probably don't have the means to completely manufacture their own. So they get different ship remnants from what they steal or destroy, and cobble together the hull as best they can. Because it's so slapdash, not only is the hull density super uneven, the places where the different ships were combined together must be super weak as well. These weird vessels can withstand space travel easy enough, but a direct hit or two? It might open the ship to the vacuum of space.”

**_~Not to mention, if there is blue quintessence is on the ship, and the ship is in danger, the automatic protocol of the Helvicta pirates is to…~_ **

“Blow the ship up.” Lance couldn’t help but wink. “So let’s use that information to our advantage this time, right?”

**_~I can relay this to the other Lions. This will help our attack immensely if you’re correct.~_ **

“I’m sure I’m correct.” Lance nodded. “Having us be surprised, unorganized and on the defensive benefits them and protects their ships from a planned attack. But now we’re turning the tables.”

**_~Then, let’s do this.~_ **

“No.” Lance shook his head. “We wait. We need to know Allura’s gotten through the radio.”

As if on cue Allura’s voice crackled on Lance’s comms, her face faint on the screen. Her face was set in a determined expression.

“Paladins, I’ve got the commhack set to the pirates’ frequency and they’re unaware we’re here. My hand is on the override button. Once I have overridden, you may fire when ready!”

“Got it.” Hunk’s voice was first. “Hey, Lance, my Lion just told me you had a plan?”

“Yeah. Look for the seams where they knocked the ships together and shoot those parts. Those parts are likely the weakest points of the ship, and when those go, the ship’s insides’ll be exposed to the vacuum.”

“Geez.” Pidge’s voice mumbled. “I could have told you that.”

“You didn’t.” Lance snorted when Pidge responded with a raspberry. “So, there. C’mon, where are you guys?”

“I’m near a large ship.” The Yellow Lion was right on the edge of the Blue Lion’s eyes, far above them. “Not the mother ship, but clearly one of the main ships. Flying over the mother ship—wait, now I’m over the friendly ship right now!”

“I’ve got some of the smaller actual Galra ships.” Lance couldn’t see the Green Lion, but remembering the basic layout of everything around him, Pidge was likely behind Hunk and Lance. “I can restrain some of them if they get away and try to fire on you guys.”

“Sounds good.” Lance nodded. “Ok, let’s do this, team! Go Team Garrison!”

“Seriously, Lance?”

“Hey,” Lance shrugged. “Let’s have the moment for ourselves before we’re back up to the Fabulous Four when Keith gets back, ok?”

“Fiiiine.”

“Yeah, Team Garrison!” Hunk was into it, at least. “Aw yeah… ready to fire!”

“Same. Same…”

With that, Lance found himself over the largest ship. The mother ship. His weapon panels began to light up as the Blue Lion prepared for Lance’s word.

“Ok, girl. Get ready.” Lance’s hands began to tighten on his controls. “Power up ice beam and laser.”

In response, the Lion’s mouth widened, and Lance could feel the Blue Lion’s tail whip towards a particular section of the mother ship. Part of a Galra ship, and part of another ship, almost snapped together like Legos, was the target. They could do this.

**_~Ready.~_ **

He was ready.

“Ok.” Lance took a breath. “Ice it.”

The ice was first.  On the mother ship, at several spots. The ship began to shake, letting small shock waves from the hits emit from the hits - enough to shake the Blue Lion. Then, without warning, the Blue Lion roared, and the tail fired at the small, frozen alcoves.

“Wait, Blue-!?”

Just like that, the hull split wide open at the seams, letting out several moderate shock waves, as air popped out of the hole like a balloon. The Blue Lion easily braced for the impact, and weathered it with ease. Hopefully, whatever was behind him could withstand the—

Wait, the Ear Worm was behind him. The ship they were trying to save.

Oops.

“Blue!!”

**_~…It was a warning shot.~_ **

“BLUUUUE!!” Lance began to panic. “We still don't know if Allura's—“

“ATTENTION, HOSTILES.” And just like that, Allura’s voice echoed through the radio waves; there was definite crackling and strange sounds emitting as if from behind his ears – the pirates on the ships attempting to regain control? – but her voice held sway in the end. “THIS IS PRINCESS ALLURA OF THE CASTLE OF LIONS. THE SHIP YOU HAVE TARGETTED IS NOW UNDER THE PROTECTION OF VOLTRON. ABORT YOUR ATTACK AND RETREAT IMMEDIATELY, OR WE WILL HAVE TO RESPOND WITH AN ALL-OUT ATTACK.”

Lance watched as the mother ship refused to budge. Of course not. Why would they? Especially since Blue may have killed half the crew just then, he thought sourly.

**_~I am sorry, truly. I felt your excitement at the prospect of finding the Red Paladin.~_ **

“We were still supposed to wait before we went full offensive.” Lance sighed. “Trust me, I want to save Keith, same as everyone else, but...”

“DISENGAGE FROM THE SHIP AND RETREAT! THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!”

“…we still should’ve held out. We could’ve lost our advantage.”

“Galra backup’s on the move towards the mother ship!” Pidge’s voice echoed through his helmet’s ears. “Let’s go, team! We got our answer!”

“Speaking of, Lance, did you just fire on the super-huge ship?” Hunk’s voice had a tone of sternness in it. “It’s starting to list slightly!”

“…Blue Lion discharged early.” Lance mumbled. “Didn’t do it on my own.”

“Sure you didn’t.” Naturally, Pidge didn’t believe him. “You dork.”

“Fair enough!” Hunk believed him, at least. “Yellow’s been rearing to go, too. Doesn’t matter anymore, we’re fighting now! I got this junk ship now nearest the planet!”

Lance pulled up the sonar map on his console. Indeed, the backup ships were on the movie, but so were the Lions. He pulled back up to the area he’d first hit, and began to move upwards; however, the Blue Lion moved on her own back towards the weakness she had already created.

“Ok, all right. Guess we can do another shot where you already hit!” The Blue Lion repeated her actions, before Lance abruptly began to pull up, resulting in a surprised roar. “Don’t worry, girl, we’re not retreating! Just about to move onto the next ship. I think we’ve done enough!”

 ** _~Did we…?~_** The Blue Lion stopped once its eyes laid on several rapidly bloating, blackening bodies being sucked out of the hole in the hull. **_~Never mind. I’ll choose the next ship to target.~_**

“Got it!” They began to fly over to the next large ship, and Lance readied his weapon controls. “Ok, power up again! This time, don’t let me hold you back. We’re going all in!”

**_~Powering up—~_ **

The Blue Lion didn’t finish her sentence, before she was suddenly tossed up over her targeted ship, tumbling on three sides, having been unexpectedly body checked by a large, fast streak of red. Lance nearly blacked out from the abrupt hit and turn, his hearing muffled with tinny ringing. However, the ringing stopped, replaced by the sudden red alert blaring around him, and with a shake of his head, he managed to get his bearings back as the Lion stabilized herself as well.

“Woah, WOAH!!” Nevertheless, Lance’s eyes crossed as he forced his stomach not to eject its contents. “What happened!? We ok, Blue!?”

**_~We’re fine. We were just bumped.~_ **

“Bumped?!”

**_~Yes. It was like…ah, what is a good way to equate it?~_ **

An image from Lance’s mind came up as the Blue Lion drew on it – one of a childhood trip to Mexico. One of those cultural trips his parents liked to take him and his siblings on during the summer, instead of going to The Most Magical Place on Earth like he'd wanted to. (He seriously was going there first thing when he got back. Well, second thing after stopping by to see his family.)

They had been in Mexico City. They were in a giant stadium. People were cheering and screaming. The matador was slowly throwing his cape over the bull, even as it was trying to run to it, trying to hit it. Even as the bull was ready to smash into him, he was still inches away, keeping the cape over the bull. Then he swung it away, irritating the bull more. A _verónica_ , his mother whispered to him, that was the name of that cape pass. Much like his sister’s name; in fact, the move's name was derived from the girl's name, which he hadn't known. Lance thought the matador and bull were just fooling around, before the lancers came out and—

“Oh,” Lance blinked the memory away. “Wait, you mean we got head-butted?!”

**_~By the Red Lion.~_ **

“The—“

Lance quickly turned to see that, indeed, the Red Lion was making right for the Ear Worm with a roar. However, after a moment, the Lion suddenly swerved away from the ship, flying towards other ships behind the Blue Lion.

“The heck is it doing!? Its actions make no—“

**_~The Red Lion heeds the Red Paladin’s will. She was about to attack the ship he was on to rescue him; it appears he asked her not to.~_ **

“What?” Lance guided the Blue Lion back to his original intended target ship. “He’s all right, then?”

 ** _~…He is changed.~_** Blue’s response was oddly hesitant. **_~However, the Red Lion says it doesn’t change who he is.~_**

“Uh.” Lance frowned as he began to power up the ice beam again. “That’s… _nice_ and all, but are you going to tell me what the change is, True Blue?”

 ** _~I must admit the Red Lion still has not spoken of precisely what it is. She holds back on us on what she knows. She is adamant that whatever it is, you should accept whatever has happened.~_** The second ship was blasted, again at the seams, by an ice beam, followed by another laser. The seam began to split again, another shock wave resulting as the ship released its air into the vacuum.  ** _~She will only say that when you at last see Keith, all things would make sense.~_**

“So Red’s being as secretive as Keith usually is.” Lance frowned as a Galra ship flew up and started strafing him; in response, the Blue Lion’s lasers began to shoot right back. “Yup, if there was any doubt about why Keith was chosen as the Red Paladin—“

**_~It is as I told you. For us, there is no equal save our chosen Paladins.~_ **

“—I think it was just put to rest.” The Galra ship fell apart from the assault, though Blue was hit a few times in the crossfire. “Come on, Blue. You ok?”

 ** _~I will be all right.~_** The screen flashed several times, showing the damage had been minimal to her outer shell. **_~It seems you were correct, after all. These ships are far weaker than we are, in all ways. Look around you. Without their radios they are without guidance, like headless beasts.~_**

“…Right.”

Lance quietly nodded, steering towards another junk ship that was trying to steer towards the Green Lion. It was big, and sharp-looking, its guns blasting towards vines holding another ship’s propulsion rockets. However, it was hardly fast. Certainly, it couldn’t outrun a Lion.

“Let’s keep going!”

And they certainly weren’t going to outrun _him_. Not when he was, more or less, the leader of Voltron for the moment. Leader Lance. He couldn't lie, it had a nice ring.

And if this was going to be Leader Lance's only battle, he was going to win it.


	6. Kurtarma

Ice beam, laser. Ice beam, laser. Make sure Hunk was covered when the big junk ship aimed at his Lion. Quickly dodge and get Pidge to a safer spot for her own offense. The ships not attacked or damaged were becoming more and more sparse, and the mother ship was moribund in the void. More than that, with everyone’s constant attacks on it, it looked ready to snap apart entirely.  The fleet’s numbers meant nothing when it couldn’t sustain itself against the constant firepower the Lions inflicted.

Lance flew over the battlefield, doing a once-over on the situation. There were very few survivors on the fallen ships, as far as Lance could tell. No escape pods on most of them. Those that had escaped were few and far between – at most, according to Blue Lion’s own scans, 15. They hadn’t been fast enough to intercept them, but wherever they were, they were not in the fight anymore, at least.

“Hey, Allura?” Lance felt safe enough to call her directly. “Any word from Keith or the ship he’s on?”

“No. There’s no response from the ship we’ve assumed him to be on, from our end.” Allura’s face briefly appeared on-screen on his control screen. “I’ve even eased the commhack off and no other ship responds. Pidge? Hunk?”

“Nope.” Hunk was first to respond. “Wow, none of the ships have anyone left to try and stop us? Talk about curbs and stomping…”

“Negatory.” Pidge was slower to respond. “Yeah, I’m running out of the small backup ships on my end. Unless there’s another bunch of ships coming our way, we can probably start scanning for survivors.”

“And then we will board the ship Keith’s obstensibly on.” Allura took a deep breath. “However, I’d like to get in contact with them before boarding, if it’s possible. To state our intentions are rescue only. If they’re not hostile they certainly must be watching us warily after our battle.”

“With the way that the comms stopped when Keith was talking?” Lance rubbed his nose. “It’s possible they’re completely down for whatever reason. Maybe the pirates did it.”

“Probably it along with any hackable onboard systems.” Pidge sounded disappointed, to no one’s surprise. “My attempts to find their computers and sneak in have been dead in the water.”

“There is no water in space, Pidge.”

“It’s an expression!” The brief explosion was followed by the clearing of Pidge’s throat. “Ugh. Sorry, Allura. Like…it means their stuff just isn’t working or can’t be connected to. Hopefully they’ve still got air on that thing. Or that Keith can hold his breath.”

“Maybe, but we must keep in mind that this could still be a trap and that communications were deliberately cut to trick us into coming to the ship’s rescue. A very elaborately-orchestrated attack, I will admit.” Even Allura didn’t seem entirely sure of that, however. “Get ready, either way. Start searching for a means to board and don’t forget your bayards. And make sure to keep in touch and watch out for any surprise stragglers among the pirates!”

“Yeah, got it, I’ll keep a line open.” Lance looked down at the scene as he began to descend on the ship they had basically torn a fleet apart to save. So far, no new ships were being picked up by the sonar; nothing new was being picked up. “Let’s see now…”

The Ear Worm, it seemed had sustained some damage from fly-by fire, but nothing substantial. Certainly, it was nowhere near same horrifying condition as the other ships. A good thing, because it meant that the possibility of Keith being alive on board was still pretty close to one hundred percent.

At least he hoped it _was_ the Ear Worm he was looking at and that Keith _was_ on board. He didn’t want to win a battle against an entire fleet, only to find a hundred angry pirates ready to shoot him and Hunk and Pidge with some of those weird tiny guns they seemed to favor in close combat. Then again, he probably wouldn’t have to worry about living down his mistake since everyone would probably be dead, their body riddled with laser holes.

**_~Your thoughts became quite dark, just now.~_ **

“Hey, it’s possible.” Lance sighed. “I mean, with the roll I’m on right now? Wouldn’t surprise me. Karma’s got to balance out for me in this battle—”

It was as he said this that his eye caught something suddenly floating out from under the bottom of the ship.

“Woah, woah, Blue—“

 ** _~New object detected.~_** A new dot was made on his mapping panel. _**~Object type: escape pod. Commencing biometric scan.~**_

“Lance!” Hunk was yelling into Lance’s helmet. “On your right! There’s a pod—!”

“Yup yup yup! _Got_ it!”

Both the Yellow and Blue Lions were over the pod, but Blue was closer. As if reading his mind (because…well…she was), Blue swooped down with a silent roar, opening its mouth to intercept it. It was going fast, but Lance would get there faster of he could help it.

“C’mon, tell me Keith’s in there…!”

_**~Biometric scan completed. There are two lifeforms. One confirmed human genetic physiological profile. The other is of an unverified genetic composition.~** _

That was enough for Lance. Maybe whoever had Keith thought they could escape with their prize. They were wrong.

“Pick them up, Blue. We're bringing them back to the castle!”

_**~Will do.~** _

As the Lion closed in, maw opening to take in the escape pod, Lance could make out the silhouettes in the liquid within the capsule from the back. One of them – it looked like the human – was holding the other – probably the unknown creature – in a bear hug. A very, very tight bear hug, to the point where the creature seemed to bend over from the pressure.

Of _course_ Keith brought a prisoner along with him. Why _wouldn’t_ he have done that? Five months missing and he has to bring home a trophy of his journey. Probably someone who had information about whatever was happening. Maybe they knew about the blue quintessence! Or maybe—

Muffled screams from the Lion’s mouth as it closed interrupted Lance’s thoughts. A struggle? Ugh. (Like Keith couldn't handle it himself, right?) At first, Lance let Keith handle it. It seemed right. The screaming, however, only increased, becoming more panicked. And, for some reason, it didn’t sound like Keith who was screaming.

Then, the escape pod opened with a telltale _hssss_ , echoed screams followed by two thumps and clattering metal. Hoo boy. It looked like it was up to Leader Lance to salvage the situation.

“Ok!” Lance rolled his shoulders and stood from his seat. “Blue, keep flying over the Eye Worm for an opening.”

**_~Indeed, Paladin.~_ **

“All right!” Lance hoped around and proceeded down to the mouth level of his ride. “If you _really_ need my help, Kei—“

“LANCE! _HELP!!_ ”

Lance squeaked as he was grabbed by his right shoulder and pulled forward. A tall, one-armed, wild-eyed Grizzly Adams was staring at him, his grip on Lance’s arm almost vice strong.

“Wh--!?” The Paladin stared at the stranger in black and his scraggly dark facial hair and long strings of black hair covering his face, his breath hitching into panicked hyperventilation. “Oh, wow, you are _so not Keith_!!”

“Keith…!” The crazy mountain man gasped, seemingly babbling as his lock of white hair covered his face. His breath was the sterile stench one would find from gargling a bag of saline for a week. “I…Keith needs help! We…need to get him back to the Castle, we need to—“

“Woah, dude, calm down!” Lance brought his free hand up towards the weirdo’s face. “We’re here to help Keith, ok? Where is he? Did the Galra hurt him?..."

Oh, right.

"Also, who the _heck_ are you?”

“Lance, I…” Still with panicked breathing, the bearded idiot turned his head to look behind him. “He’s right here.”

“He’s—?”

Lance craned his head to look at what the other was seeing. His eyes widened as he took in what was before him.

_…what…?_

There was a Galra laying on the floor, head lulled to the side. He – it had to be a he judging by the, um, lack of curves - wore garments that almost looked like the prisoner suit Shiro wore when he crashed back onto Earth, but with the purple insignia of the Galra military on it. His limbs were long and thin, almost spidery and sinewy, tapering off to ripped, fingerless gloves that showed his long claws. His legs – really his body in general -  was thin, almost skeletal. A blue sash was wound around one of his wrists.

A small pool of blue-tinted blood was forming underneath his left thigh, where a gaping hole was. 

“Lance.” He pulled away from the panicking lumberjack, despite the pleas. “Lance, wait, don’t—I swear its—!”

Lance ignored the other. He wasn’t going to kill the Galra, not when he was clearly injured. But….’he’s right here’? This wasn’t _Keith_ , was it? The human he just rescued was clearly in shock. There was no way this could be Keith. Keith didn’t just spontaneously turn into a Galra whenever – he just had Galra heritage. That was the same as Lance claiming he was related to an ancient Spanish pope by marriage to a cousin once-removed – and then being able to turn into the current bishop of Rome with a snap of his fingers. That just didn't happen.

Besides. The mullet on this one was too long.

As…long as someone who might have had a Keith-esque mullet might have if…they hadn’t had a haircut for several months, actually.

 _Keith_ had been gone for several months.

Lance quickly opened up both of the lids on the Galra’s eyes. One was a faint, glowing golden, like any Galra's eye was. The other was a human eye, dilated pupil surrounded by a not-quite grey, not-quite blue, not-quite purple iris. Like Keith’s.  And around his eyes were flesh-colored lines and freckles, like a human’s. And his face, though thinner, more angular, and way more purple overall, was very much…Keith-like.

Lance’s own eyes widened as realization began to slowly set in – as everything began to come together in his mind.

Keith’s voice sounded a half an octave or so lower than normal, and had an air of gruffness to it, on the comms.

The blood on the floor was the same blue hue as The Blue.

_Demonic. Evil. Deadly for many. And those who didn’t die…_

_“When did Galra have beaks?”_

  _…No._

This was him. This was Keith. His thoughts exploded with shock, surprise, relief, and then panic. He was not speaking, wasn't even moving, and he still bled from that blast to his thigh. If this really was Keith, then Lance needed to get back to the Castle to get him treated, stat.

...But if this was Keith, and Lance was just about ninety-nine percent sure that it _was_ , then he wasn’t human. If _that_ was the case, who _was_ the human _with_ him and how did this guy _know_ his _name_ —

Beneath him, the ground began to shake.

“Lance!?”

**_~The Black Lion has awakened.~_ **

“Wh—!?”

Lance took his helmet off, rubbing his head. He was pretty sure he was hearing things just then, and all things considered, now wasn’t the time for Blue Lion to joke.

Then again, farts aside, Blue Lion wasn’t _that_ kind of joker.

"Did you just—" He switched to his mind. _~Did you just say something about the Black Lion? When did this happen!?~_

**_~The Black Lion, yes. She is coming towards us! She has sensed her Paladin!~_ **

_~Her—~_

Lance’s head instantly came back up. Her Paladin. No way. Unless that meant that the crazy bearded human in front of him, eyes closing as he fell to his knees next to Keith was…

Again, it was the hair that tipped him to the identity of the person in front of him. It was much longer, but there were the tell-tale signs that he hadn’t registered when he’d first looked at him. That long shock of white hair in comparison to the rest of his black hair, which came down to his shoulder blades, from near the center of his brow. The long, pale scar across his nose. Then there were the eyes. Dark grey. That wasn't even taking into account that the voice sounded all too much like... _like_...

...This was really happening. This was too surreal and yet they were both right in front of Lance.

Keith, _and_ —

“…Shiro.” The Blue Lion kept rocking back and forth, as the Black Lion besieged the Blue Lion, almost ramming it. He could almost feel the panicked energy come off of the older Paladin, and no doubt, the Black Lion’s actions were mirroring Shiro’s state of mind. The desire to save Keith. “Shiro, calm down. We’re going to get Keith to safety. We'll get him help.”

“He was shot.” Shiro’s shaking hand crooked under Keith’s head. “He…I thought he was one of them. Then his eye changed, and…!”

Shiro’s words weren’t making much sense. Again, though—

“I hurt him.”

—he was clearly in shock.

“ _I did this_ –!”

“Shiro.” Lance lunged and grabbed Shiro’s shoulders. Whatever happened could be explained later. “ _Shiro_. Bro. Dude. _Look at me._ I can hear your heart all the way from here, and I bet half the galaxy can, too. You’re gonna pass out if you keep breathing like that.”

The Lion rocked, more violently. From beneath Keith, a metal arm slid out and clattered into the wall.

“Oh god.” Shiro shut his eyes and his head sagged towards the floor, mouth gasping for air in short abbreviated breaths. “I…but…ok…just…”

“I’ll count to ten.” _Guess its Leader Lance to the rescue again. I can do this!_ “After each number, take a deep breath. You got this, ok? We’ve got Keith and we’re going to get him back to the Castle right now. Keith is going to be fine.”

 "But-“

“He’ll be _fine_. Got it? Now. One…two…”

It was difficult for the first several numbers. Eventually, however, Shiro’s breathing slowed, and when Lance got to ten, Shiro was more noticeably calmed. His head still tilted towards the floor, but he wasn’t quite ready to pass out. Not for the moment, at least. The effect wasn't just noticed inside the Blue Lion, either; with the decreasing amount of bumps and hits from outside, Lance could tell the Black Lion had stopped smacking into the Blue Lion.

“Lance?!” Hunk’s voice came from Lance’s helmet. “Lance, why are you going back to the Castle? What happened? Is it the escape pod?!”

“You better have lost your limbs, Lance, if you’re going back to the Castle! The Black Lion’s out and flying and...it think it just tried to zap you!!” Pidge was shouting from her cockpit. “Holy _moly_ its acting erratic!! Shiro’s got to be here somewhere! We’ve got to find him! ”

Lance kept a quiet hand on Shiro as he began to respond. It was just as much for him to keep himself level, as to keep Shiro calm.

“Yo, guys, you can call off the search for Shiro and Keith. I’ve got them both. I’m bringing them in now.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“Lance, if this is your idea of a joke…!”

“Oh, _sure_ you don’t believe me. Hang on a sec.” Lance took off his helmet and held it out to Shiro. “Hey, Shiro, I'm sorry, but...you mind saying something to Pidge and Hunk? They don’t believe you’re with me.”

Slowly, Shiro looked up at Lance from his hand. The expression on his face was one of devastation. He practically looked a decade older with his beard, his hair, his tired, wild eyes. It was clear that whatever had happened on the Ear Worm, it had been bad. Real bad.

Slowly, however, he brought Keith’s head into his lap, grabbed the helmet from Lance, and blankly stared at it. Finally, he spoke, shaking his head, bringing the helmet away from him.

“…I can't.”

He was still picked up, nevertheless, as there were audible gasps and shouts from the helmet’s systems when Shiro quietly thrust the helmet back into Lance’s chest. He simply kept his eyes fixed on Keith, who was looking less purple and more ashen grey, like death warmed over, as the ticks went by. He said nothing more.

_Shiro..._

**_~We’re entering the hangar. We will be in the Blue Tower in less than a dobosh.~_** Lance’s Lion spoke through their bond. **_~My apologies for being silent. As your mind had put a focus on it, I sent a signal to the Castle requesting medical assistance when we arrive.~_**

_~Thanks, man.~_

Lance stood up, making his way towards where that random metal arm lay. No - _Shiro's_ metal arm. It had to be; why else would Keith have had it? As he picked it up, he was surprised at just how heavy it was; it felt like it weighed least fifty pounds, if not more. How Shiro managed to keep the thing balanced on his body without falling over from gravity doing its job was beyond him, and that was taking into account that Shiro had some pretty good muscle tone.

Well. He didn’t have as much tone _now_ as he did before, now that Lance looked him over again. He'd lost a decent amount of weight since the battle with Zarkon and, as a result, looked weirdly lanky. Like Shiro was half-way to a build like _himself_  of all people. He never thought he'd imagine Shiro's head on his own body, and the idea just sat wrong with him. He also - he realized - had a pretty gnarly gash on his wrist that looked a little too new for Lance's liking.

Yet even missing an arm and having an open wound on the other, Shiro still looked a thousand times better - a thousand _million billion_ times better, actually - than Keith did, who finally let out a sound from his mouth. It sounded like a cross between a cat hacking up a hairball, a gurgle, and a moan, with static interference popping in and out as his oddly lumpy stomach area rose up and down. Lance could tell there were small lumps there because of just how little else where was of him, Shiro just looked like he'd been going for a him-look-alike contest - thin, but potentially still good-looking without the crazy hair. Maybe with some toning he could pull off the Lance Look.

Keith looked like he’d outright been _starved_. He probably had been, and the worst part was knowing that probably wasn’t the worst thing that had been done to him on the Ear Worm.

And Keith – for some reason – had wanted Voltron to _help_ that ship.

Lance couldn’t help but stare at two two, one more time.

What the heck _happened_ to those _quiznaks_?

 

* * *

 

Allura was running into the Blue Tower as the Lion was opening its mouth; Lance was leaping down the stairs, metal arm in hand, nearly crashing into the princess.

It was just as well that he almost literally ran into her. He had to prepare her for the shock of seeing the two missing Paladins with her own eyes – especially in the condition they were in. Especially in the condition Keith was in.

“Ghhk—!?” Allura gasped as she stumbled back. “Lance!! Where are Keith and Shiro?! We need to bring them to the pods!”

“Yeah, I know, I was going to get you,” Lance grunted as he held up the arm. “They’re both in there. Look, there’s something you really need to know before we get them out, and it's going to come as a shock—“

“That’s…Shiro’s arm!?” Allura was instantly shoving Lance aside, sending him sprawling on his butt. “Oh my god, _Lance_ , stop _talking_ and let me get _in_ there…!”

“Wait—!?” Lance landed with a howl. “Augh!! _Allura_ —!!“

With a wince, Lance rolled over and scrambled on his hands and knees like a dog, right back up the steps of his Lion’s mouth. This wasn’t _not_ good. Not at all. The moment Allura saw Keith, and didn’t recognize him, who knew what she’d do? Lance always believed that the princess would never go out of her way to intentionally harm Keith, even during her initial coldness towards him after the revelation of his heritage. Surely she wouldn’t kill a gravely injured and defenseless Galra, even if she didn’t recognize Keith. But Lance could also tell Allura was in no mood for calm contemplation of the situation before her. She was tense, worried, and because of that, anything was possible when she saw Keith.

...Provided she didn’t kill Shiro the Forty-Niner first. Especially since that seemed to be what she was about to do. Lance crawled up to the top just in time to see Allura prepared to jump up and plant a hard, magic-enhanced kick right onto the side of the carpeted prospector’s face. Especially since Shiro seemed to be unwilling to defend himself, and had only just looked up at her and did little more than that.

“Wait!! Allura!! That’s Shiro!!”

“Huh?” Both Allura and Shiro turned to face Lance, Allura the one to speak, her tone brusque. “Lance, what are you talking about? This looks nothing like Shiro! How can you think that?”

“…Seriously?” Lance’s face scrunched up. “You can’t tell that’s Shiro? Look at the hair! Look at the _arm_ \- the lack of arm!”

“All I see,” Allura’s eyebrows furrowed, “is this…person who looked ready to snap Keith’s neck!”

Lance could feel his mouth slowly open in utter shock. Ok, so...Allura was _attacking_ Shiro and _protecting_ Keith. That wasn’t how he anticipated this at all.

“Oh, don’t look at me that way.” Allura’s hand was glowing pink from her magic – an action which caused the Klondike settler to tense up and brace himself. “Isn’t it obvious its Keith? Even if the hair wasn’t obvious – as you are often _so_ fond of pointing out about him, Lance! – the face is.”

At this, her eyes softened, a quiet regret and worry creeping into her expression. She slowly began to bend down, bringing her hand down to his chin. She also began to shove Shiro aside with her hips, giving him a warning glare.

...Wait, seriously, she couldn’t tell who the ZZ Topper was?

“I remember looking at him up close, so many times. The last time was...when I apologized to him. Before our battle with Zarkon. He’s lost so much weight…” Her fingers traced to his neck, where they tensed and tightened their grip as they scaled up the back of his head. Keith involuntarily shivered as a reaction. “His head is injured, as is his neck. Whatever trauma’s happened in him…he’s got a response fever and is getting hotter. His body might be trying to compensate for what’s happened to it.”

“…Allura.” Finally, Shiro spoke, doing his best to try to position his hand under Keith’s back. “I’ll get him—“

“ _Not another word_.” Allura cast another venomous glare at Shiro, who slowly drew his hand back. “And _you_ will not touch him. If Lance is right, and you really _are_ Shiro, I will ascertain that on my own later.”

“For the love of—he _is_ Shiro!” If the situation wasn’t so dire, Shiro wasn't also injured, and Allura wasn't so clearly unconvinced, Lance would be laughing at the surreal situation unfolding in front of him. “Allura! His Galra arm is _right down there_ on the floor where I dropped it. When you shoved me!”

“That's enough, Lance." Her tone cast towards him now, and it brooked no argument. "In any case. I’m bringing Keith to the healing pods. I should hope you will watch over _him_ until I return." Casting one last distrustful glare towards the disgruntled heavy metal guitarist. "Bind his wounds if you must, but make sure he doesn’t cause trouble.”

Allura quickly – carefully – picked Keith up. The action elicited a faint, gargled moan from the Galra-thing that Keith had somehow become, his lips moving with voice unheard, and seriously did Allura _really not recognize Shiro_?

“ _LANCE!!_ ”

“Lance, where’re Shiro and—!?”

It was at that point that Pidge and Hunk burst into the Blue Tower, panting. When they saw the figure in Allura’s arms as she proceeded down the Lion’s mouth – jumping over Lance as she did so – they both froze.

“Oh my god!” Hunk was instantly hovering over Keith, much to Allura’s annoyance, his eyes wide. “No way, that’s…”

“Is…is that seriously Keith!?” Pidge’s own jaw dropped at the sight, her own eyes betraying her terror. “He…he’s not dead, is he?! He…he looks dead…and _Galra_ …wait, how is he a Galra?”

“He’s been shot.” Hunk gulped. “Oh man, right through his leg, he might be bleeding out. Is...is that the floor I can see through h-...please tell me he’ll be ok from receiving that.”

“It’s a serious wound, but he isn’t dead yet.” Allura quickened her pace, separating herself from the group. “And I don’t know how he’s a Galra, Pidge. It doesn’t matter right now! I’m taking him to the med bay, the pods are already prepared. You two need to help Lance secure _that man_ who’s in the Lion, so I may properly question him later.”

Said man, meanwhile, had quietly walked over to the top of the Lion’s mouth, and was watching as Allura hustled out of the Blue Tower with Keith in tow. As Lance observed, Shiro’s glance didn’t leave the unmoving figure until the hangar doors had closed behind the princess.

“Ugh, _Allura_ , that man is…” Lance threw his hands up in defeat. “You know what? Never mind. Shiro, you’re just gonna have to deal with being under arrest for right now, ok?”

“Shiro…?”

Lance turned to see Pidge walking towards the Blue Lion. Her pace quickened, and her eyes widened, as her own moment of realization set in. Hunk was also starting towards the ramp, a smile slowly forming on his own face as he realized who the one-armed hobo was. Lance took a breath of relief – at least Pidge and Hunk recognized him through the hair – and looked towards Shiro.

There were tears forming in Shiro's eyes, but they were not tears of joy.

“ _ **SHIRO**_! Oh my god, it’s really you!” Oh, geez, tears were forming in Pidge’s eyes as she prepared to launch herself at him. “After all this time…we all thought—and you're _hurt_ —!”

Lance was up, and before Pidge could get any closer, he was in her way arms spread wide to bar her.

“Not a…good idea right now!”

“What the— _HEY_!” Lance winced at the hits Pidge was getting on him. “What are you doing!? Don’t block me, you blockhead!”

“Hey! Ow!” Lance yelped as she bonked his nose hard, but he didn’t move. “Stop it! Shiro’s still in a little bit of shock! Now's not the time!”

“What are you talking about?” Hunk gently pulled Pidge away from Lance before she could break anything on his beautiful face. “Why would he be in shock?”

_I hurt him._

“Because he…” Lance bit his lip. “I…think he blames himself for Keith being hurt.”

“Say _what_?” Hunk looked up at Shiro, a derisive snort in his nostrils. “No way! Shiro would _neve_ r hurt Keith—“

“Stop it.”

Shiro’s voice cut through the talk, sharply and harshly. Lance looked back towards the leader of the Paladins, who stared back at the three with quiet, angry, misty eyes.

“All of you. Please. _Stop._ I _told_ you, Lance…I hurt him.” Shiro’s fist was shaking, as his breath began to quicken again. He repeated himself, louder. “I _hurt_ him. Don’t you understand? Allura’s right to mistrust me.”

His all-too-human fist violently hit the wall of the Blue Lion’s insides. From his gash, a small streak of blood rubbed onto the metal.

“I did this to him!  _I shot him_!!”


	7. Sorular

It took a good amount of time for the three Paladins to figure out what Shiro was saying. Well, no, that wasn’t entirely true. Lance thought _that_ part that Shiro first uttered was pretty cut and dry. Pretty sure Shiro said that he shot Keith and that he ‘did this’. That wasn’t the important part. Shiro could have thought he shot Keith, for example. Or there had to be extenuating reasons why Shiro would have shot Keith, or just hurt him in general. Like, for example, the fact that Keith looked like a purple cat. Or the fact that Shiro was still about five seconds away from cracking from…whatever had happened to him that also made him grow a beard.

In any case, Lance was pretty sure that Shiro wouldn’t have just hurt Keith for no reason. It turned out, after calming Shiro back down again, wrapping his wrist wound, and getting him some tea, that seemed to be the case. In fact, it was a little more worrying than that.

Shiro admitted that he’d woken up inside a broken cryogenic pod with a bloodied leak in the glass, with no idea of how long he’d been out, or how he’d even gotten there. Indeed, the last thing he remembered before everything had happened, to everyone’s surprise and fear, was phasing through Zarkon during Voltron’s final push against him, before finally getting one last hit on him. Zarkon grabbed the head of Voltron, there was a great surge of energy, and then…nothing Shiro could genuinely recall until he woke up on the Ear Worm. All he could describe was the feeling of having woken up from a nightmare he couldn’t recall and likely never would. Yet, at the same time, the dream had felt real enough that, when he woke up, he could still feel the wind and blood and echo of sound in his ears. That he could still feel the fear of what had happened in him, and his fear of the Galra Empire - of Galra anything - was heightened when he found himself where he did, as a result.

Lance decided not to push Shiro back into panic mode by revealing how long had actually passed between _that_ battle, and when he ostensibly woke up surrounded by Galra and pirates. Neither Pidge or Hunk seemed to be ready to divulge, either. He was clearly close enough to it as it was, as he spoke. And when he’d woke and saw what was in front of him, Shiro – with no clear memory of how he got there, no sense of time, no armor, no weapons, and one arm, after a half year of _nothing_ that he didn't even know had passed – panicked.

Which was an understatement, probably. Not even probably. _Totally_ an understatement.

Shiro went off and proceeded to attack the ones that had been surrounding his cryo-pod, took up one of their weapons, and started going through the ship. Whoever came at him, he shot at range, or attacked with his arm if he was up close. He couldn’t find the bridge, couldn’t figure out the layout of the ship. It was confusing, mishmash, and filled with secret rooms and spots that attackers could easily come through and hit him from when he wasn't looking. It only heightened his sense of paranoia, and his urgency that he needed to get off of the ship, that he needed to find a way.

He had to be terrified. Heck, Shiro was probably still terrified. He was probably understating just how he felt; Lance realized their leader seemed to do that a lot when it came to situations like this, and did it way more than was probably healthy. Was it to be strong for them, even while he so very clearly fell apart inside? It was a bit annoying, he had to admit to himself. He understood _why_ Shiro did it, to a degree, but he wasn’t sure if it was really going to help anyone. Especially Shiro. Keeping things from the team, bottling things down. That had never worked out, and it wasn’t going to work out in the long run here.

For the moment, though, Lance held his tongue. Now wasn’t the time to bring it up. Now was the time to figure out the basics of what happened to Shiro.

“…And then, I found a room with some weird duct work in it. That’s how I managed to find a way to an escape pod. I…I heard voices, and then…someone came in to the room I was in.” Shiro stared down at his drink, his eyes staring right through it. “So I surprised them. I shot them. Then I threatened to kill them. They…they tried talking me down, telling me you guys were here…but…I thought it was a Galra soldier that was trying to trick me.”

“And it was actually Keith.” Pidge’s voice was quiet. “Shiro…”

“I…I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t _hear_ him.” Lance could hear the breaths begin to quicken again. “Even though he kept talking to me, I didn’t recognize him until his eye changed. How could I not _recognize_ him? I could've—“

“Hey.” Lance held a hand up. “What matters is that you didn’t do anything more and you got him back to the Castle. He’s going to be fine and that’s that.”

“Yeah.” Hunk nodded. “I don’t think Keith’s going to hold it against you. I mean, it was a high-stress situation, right? Anyone could have made a similar mistake.”

Lance watched as Shiro’s hand tightened on his cup, not giving Hunk a response.

“So, uh.” Lance cleared his throat. “I was wondering if you wanted to borrow my razor to shave.”

“Huh?” The Black Paladin looked up, surprised. “Here? Now?”

“And my Black Diamond shears. You know, cut your hair? Trim the tree?” Lance shrugged.  “Might help Allura to recognize you.”

“I…” Shiro seemed taken aback. “Are you sure that’s wise? Me going to your room when Allura's made me a prisoner?”

“I’ll come with you,” Pidge quickly volunteered. “I can make sure that Allura and Coran don’t try anything with you.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about where he needs to go!”

As if on cue, Coran walked in, yawning and tottering. Lance was definitely going to ask him about the recipe for that sleeping drink. It had to be pretty strong if Coran was still having problems staying awake, even vargas after the initial distress signal.

“The princess has requested that… _haaaaaaah_ …that the prisoner be transported down to the pod bay.” Coran closed his eyes, letting out a few smaller yawns. “What’s this about Number Five escorting him?”

“Oh, um.” Pidge gulped. “We just wanted to shave Shiro…you know, take him to his rooms? He’s not really a prisoner!”

“Shiro?” Coran turned to look at the miner man, his eyes opening to a narrow stare. “That can’t be... _hhnnnnn_ …Number One. He looks nothing like him!”

“Woah, woah, woah!” Lance quickly stepped between the Altean and Shiro. “First off, it’s totally him, how can you not tell, seriously. Second, we’re not making him a prisoner! Putting my foot down! I'm invoking my veto power!”

“Lance—“

“Third, even if he somehow is a prisoner and dangerous and has to go into the pods, I ordered him to be taken to my room to be cleaned first before we put him anywhere. He looks ugly and its unacceptable.” Lance swiped a finger across his forehead, tossing a bang to the side. “I’m leader until Keith wakes up or until we find Shiro, right? And if he tries to escape Hunk can handle him. He’s human, after all.”

“Wh—“ From behind him Pidge sputtered. “What about me!? I volunteered to go with him!”

“Oh, right.” Lance nodded. “You should probably go too, Coran. Make sure Pidge doesn’t swipe my beer soap and try to distill the alcohol from it!”

“ _What!?_ ”

“…You have beer soap?”

“Hey!” Lance’s head swerved around towards Shiro. “No judging! Beer yeast is actually very good for the skin! And…it’ll help with the prisoner’s ingrown hairs after he shaves, if he so chooses to use it. If he chooses to shave. It’s the round stuff that smells vanilla-y.”

“Of course you would use soap like _that_ ,” Pidge mumbled. “I bet you have beer shampoo too.”

“And you’re not allowed to try distilling that, either! You’re too young to drink.”

“I’m not going to do that!” The Green Paladin made a face. “It sounds gross. Beer shampoo would probably kill me if I ingested it.”

“Its vegan, actually! And non-toxic.”

“Woah!” Hunk’s eyes widened. “…Can I borrow it sometime?”

“I am seriously going to smack you.” Pidge glared between the two. “Both of you! _Priorities_ , geez!”

“…So what you’re saying is.” At least Shiro wasn’t looking scared or upset anymore; he just looked slightly bemused. “I should use the beer soap when I shave my face.”

“Oh, did I say that? I guess I must have! Silly me.” Giving Coran a cheesy smile, Lance folded his hands together. “Well, everyone’s ready whenever you are, Coran.”

Coran’s eyes narrowed even more as he looked at Lance, then at Shiro, then back at Lance. Slowly, he moved until his nose was less than a foot away, his lips pursed discerningly beneath his mustache. His eyes met Lance’s eyes, and Lance felt the quiet questions in the air emanating from the other.

“Hmm.” After a moment, Coran leaned away, allowing his finger to twirl around his mustache. He proceeded to pull it, closing his eyes. “Very well! I shall trust your judgement, Number Two. You clearly have your reasons for allowing this person to shave, and I’m certain I shall see them in time! And if they do attempt anything, should I be unable to control the situation, I shall call you for backup.”

He looked up at Pidge and Hunk, and nodded.

“Shall we?”

“All right.” Shiro walked between Pidge and Hunk, looking over at Coran. “Thank you. I promise you’ll…see. I’m not an enemy.”

His tone faltered, just slightly, at the end. Lance turned back, his eyes widening slightly; he watched as his leader walked off, escorted by Pidge and Hunk, both with worried looks on their faces. It was terrible. It was terrible to see Shiro this way. Was that what he thought of himself? The enemy? Never. Not in Lance’s mind, at least. There was no way that Shiro would be an enemy. It was an accident. What happened _had_ to have been an accident. Shiro would never hurt Keith. Not on purpose.

Keith would understand that, right? That it was an accident?

Coran, meanwhile, waited, began to walk behind the group, then stopped and turned to face Lance.

“Oh, yes, I ought not to forget to tell you. Once I’ve seen the prisoner to his…” Another yawn. “…to his pod, I am recharging the teludav to full jumping capacity. We will be leaving Helvicta airspace in two vargas at the most. In the meantime, Allura seems to be in the med bay, if you wish to speak to her.”

“I…” Did Coran know about Keith? Or… “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

“Brilliant!” The Altean turned back to the ‘prisoner’, Pidge and Hunk. “Now, let’s go. Off to Lance’s room, and then to the prisoner pods with you!...”

 

* * *

 

The first thing Lance did, once everyone had left the Blue Tower, was to of course head straight to the medical bay. Hopefully, Keith was all right. Leader Lance wouldn’t know what he’d do if he walked in and the idiot was dead because Allura couldn’t get him into a pod in time. That would be his luck, too.

 ** _~The Red Lion watches over him.~_** As if to respond to Lance’s worry, he felt the purr of his Lion and a breath against his cheek. **_~He lives, still.~_**

 _~So far!~_ Lance puffed his cheeks out and let out a _poot-poot-poot_ breath through his pursed lips. _~He was pretty bad off.~_

**_~Yes. He was. Now, he is no longer in danger, thanks to you.~_ **

_~…I guess I’ll take that as a victory.~_ Lance noticed she didn’t assure him that he’d actually be all right. Maybe she thought not being in danger was enough. He shrugged. _~Here’s to hoping, yeah?~_

Finally, he entered the medical bay area. The first thing he spotted was Allura, hunched over a panel in front of a pod. The second, Keith in a white pod suit inside the medical pods. The third, the suit Keith was wearing, crumbled on the chair nearest to Allura.

“Lance.” She was dressed in her royal garb, her fingers pressing on the panel. “I’ve just finished stabilizing Keith in the pod. I trust Coran relayed my wishes to the team?”

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Lance’s teeth bit down all the way to the top of his chin. “He did. Hunk and Pidge’re taking care of that, too.”

Wasn't technically a lie.

“Good.” Allura pressed the panel one final part of the panel, then stepped back, eyes worried. “I still can’t believe this. It took me so long to get him in there…I almost couldn’t pod him because the database couldn’t match his genetic profile to the one it had. If this hadn’t worked I don’t know what we would’ve done.”

“Wait, seriously? It didn’t _know_ him?” Lance walked over to the panel, peering at it. “I guess shapeshifting into a space cat might do that…”

“No, it’s not shapeshifting, Lance. It’s something else entirely. Shapeshifting wouldn’t change your genetic makeup like this. Look.” Pointing to a small square corner with two graph charts. “That’s Keith’s profile when you all first arrived on Arus in the Blue Lion and you were first analyzed. Then there’s his profile now – it’s almost entirely Galra according to this.”

“Woah.” Lance stared. The top one – old Keith’s - looked much more squiggly and even pretty human...ish (maybe? He wasn't a geneticist!), while the bottom one – Space Cat Keith's - was almost a completely straight line, with only a few small spikes. “That _is_ weird. Kind of creepy. Do you know what did it?”

“No, just that’s affected his genetic stability and…his quintessence levels seem to be elevated to a much higher level than a human should have, alongside the presence of an unknown substance.” Allura shook her head. “The medical database doesn’t have any information on anything like this, and in his current condition I didn’t want to do anything too extensive that could harm him.”

“But he’ll be ok, right?” Lance looked up, walking over to the pod. “I mean, the pod’ll fix him even though he’s a Galra, yeah?”

“...I had to try a few times to get it to accept him, and do manual overrides, but yes. Its healed Galra paladins before, so that’s not a problem.” The idea of a Galra like Zarkon being stuffed into the med pod was definitely a weird and slightly amusing thought, Lance mused, as Allura replied. “It’ll be some time, though. Several quintants at the least, even using the pod’s maximum regeneration settings.”

“Several quintants…” Lance’s hands placed themselves on the pod. It was cold. “Well, it’s…hm.”

Well, here he was. Keith was in the pod, and safe. And Galra. Basically, the guy was currently a train wreck that you couldn’t look away from. And what a train wreck the space cat was, as Lance carefully gave him a once-over.

The first thing Lance noticed, as he looked over Keith, more than anything, was how frail and tiny he looked. He was tall, and Galra, and yet at the same time, he was just too thin. He almost seemed light enough as to float in the med pod, and his body looked too angular, too spindly. Too _delicate_. He wondered how Allura managed to get him into the pod suit without snapping him in half, then realized how terrifying it was that he was thinking about this when considering _Keith_ , of all people. Keith, who was always strong and fast and flexible and always never getting seriously hurt, and rubbing it in Lance’s face about how perfect he was by just being there, tearing through Galra fleets.

 _That_ Keith. This _was_ that Keith. It just seemed so wrong to see him like this. It seemed wrong that he looked so…vulnerable.

That was when he noticed the second thing. There was a long, almost squiggly scar on one of the cheekbones of Keith’s frighteningly-thin face, clear and noticeable even with the fur. In fact, it seemed like the fur cut off around it.

“Hey, Allura?” He turned back to the princess, glad he could turn away from the train wreck for a moment. “Did you notice that weird cut on his face?”

“…Yes.” She blanched. “I noticed his scars. That one seems to be the most recent.”

Scars. Plural.

“Wait, what…what other…”

“When I was preparing him.” Allura’s eyes trailed over towards the discarded suit. “All over his upper back and neck. There were dozens of them. Also, one near his neck, and stomach and chest. I made sure to input that they were there, since the pod wouldn’t pick up on it otherwise. Hopefully, the healing properties of the chamber will…lessen their appearance…”

She trailed off, still staring at the suit. Lance looked back at the pod – but not at Keith, it was rude to stare, rude to stare even at a train wreck – and brought up his basic vitals. They seemed to be stable, at least. A higher heartbeat, and a higher temperature, but that seemed to be normal for space cats according to the panel. Well, even then, Keith apparently had a fever, but the pod didn’t mention it; the pod must have brought it down.

What wasn’t normal was the Hapalochlaenian neurotoxin in his bloodstream (the _heck_ was that!!?) – minute levels, but enough to be picked up on. Or the hole in his left leg. Or the three dislocated ribs. Or the three head injuries, including one concussion. Or the bruising on his lower spine. Or the tail, broken in two places. Or the weird elevated readings on some of his organs, like his kidneys.

So many injuries.

Shiro couldn’t have _possibly_ done all of this, could he?

“…Allura?”

“Hm?”

“Can I ask a question?” Lance turned to her; she was sitting on the couch, holding the suit. “How did you recognize Keith, even though he’s Galra right now?"

"How did I—"

"I mean, you mentioned remembering his face, but it took me a bit to realize who he was. You seemed to know it was him immediately.”

There was a silence at this.

“Keith…I…” Allura didn’t look up. “It’s a rather terrible reason, actually. Other than the one I spoke of.”

“What? You see him like this before or something?”

“…In my dreams.”

“…You…” Lance blinked. “Saw Keith in your dreams? Why didn’t you say—“

“No…I mean…” There was a slight redness in Allura’s cheeks. “In my dreams… _before_ this happened. When we first learned of his ancestry. They were ridiculous dreams, quite honestly, but…I’d dream of him changing and…looking like this.”

Lance was silent. When Allura first learned of Keith’s shared genetics with the Galra, she had become more distant towards him. Ignored him unless it was absolutely necessary for team purposes, and even then, didn’t speak to him directly, or at all. No one was particularly happy about it, since Keith was still Keith, no matter what, so doubting Keith was dumb. On the other hand, though, Allura’s people had basically been betrayed and wiped out by Galra, by a Galra Paladin, and dismissing her distress was also dumb. The situation thankfully resolved itself, because it had to.

But those dreams. She dreamed he’d change, and then…what? Did he attack Allura? Attack the other Paladins? Turn into Zarkon? Was that what she’d been afraid of, one of her friends turning into another Zarkon?

“…He looks so much like himself, even now.” The princess’ hands had tightened on the shirt. “He’ll get better, of course. He’ll heal. But then after that…what will happen after that? Will he think I intend harm on him? Will I—“

“He won’t.” Lance frowned, putting his hands on his hips. “I think if anything he’ll be glad you aren’t angry with him or ignoring him or whatever. And he’ll forgive Shiro too, you’ll see!”

“…Yes, I suppose.” Allura didn’t sound convinced. “Once we find Shiro, I hope so.”

“Once we—“ Oh, right. “Allura, I _really_ hate to be the bearer of good news, but we found Shiro! You know, guy with the beard you nearly de-brained?”

“Lance,” Allura frowned. “You’re not funny and I fail to see how humor makes this situation _any_ better.”

“I’m not being funny!” _She seriously didn’t see it. How—?!_ “That really is Shiro!”

“Enough.” Allura’s voice sharpened. “That bearded human can’t possibly be Shiro.”

“Why not?!”

“Because,” Allura motioned. “That man has a beard. Shiro doesn’t have a beard, has never had a beard, and I doubt he’d ever be able to grow one anyways!”

“Wh—“

Clearly, Lance was missing something here. Something alien-related, or at least Altean-related. Because otherwise her answer made no sense.

“Allura?”

“ _What._ ”

“…How do Alteans grow their hair?”

“I don’t see what this has to do with how that man is or isn’t—“

“Just…I’m asking for reasons.” It had everything to do with the situation. Even if Allura didn’t see it right then. “And hey, maybe I’ll actually learn something about Alteans, right? You and Coran always like us Paladins learning things!”

“But…” The princess sighed. “Very well. An Altean’s general appearance is tied to our sense of self, our self-perception. Also, its dependent on how we believe we should be present ourselves to the universe at large for a given situation. That includes our hair. If I so desire…for example, when we are approaching a state of battle…”

Lance nearly jumped as Allura’s long hair suddenly shifted, becoming shorter, more compact, until it tied itself into the neat bun she always sported when she wore her armor.

“Woah.” Lance pointed. “Ok, that actually explains why your hair always looks so long when its down, but…not when its up…”

“Of course.”

And Coran’s mustache, Lance realized. He must think his having a mustache is the most amazing thing in the universe or something. In any case.

“…That’s not how human hair works.” Lance’s eyebrows raised as he began to bring his head down towards Allura. “See Keith’s hair? That’s from not cutting it in five months. Its super long.”

“Is that so?” Allura blinks. “But how? Your hair…it looks just like it did when you first arrived!”

“That’s because we have to _groom_ our hair. We have to cut it and trim it and all that so it doesn’t get too long.” Lance grinned as he leaned closer. “That includes facial hair. It grows all the time and you have to trim it every day or so! Heck, maybe if I lean in real close you can see _my_ stubble, right around my—“

“How about _no_.” And there it was. His face was being pushed away by Allura’s finger on his nose. A fail _and_ a success! He'll take it. “So…what you’re saying is…humans don’t simply shapeshift their hair, like we do.”

“That’s right!”

“And…” Allura’s face started to change, her thoughtful expression slowly morphing into a look of shock. “You’re saying Shiro… _could_ grow a beard. If he doesn’t…groom himself for long periods of time.”

“Pretty much.”

Allura stared at Lance, her mouth ajar and nearly as wide as her eyes. Realization and horror dawned in those pupils as she put Lance’s words together.

_Come on, princess. You can do this. Put the pieces together! You know I’m right!_

After a moment, she was instantly on her feet, Keith’s prisoner suit in her arms, purple lines glowing. (Just what _did_ those purple lines on his suit mean, anyways?...) She turned her head away towards the door, squaring her shoulders.

“Oh. Ah. It appears I…just remembered something!” She cleared her throat. “I left my shoe in the prisoner pod bay.”

“…You’re wearing your shoes.”

“My other…other shoe.”

"When the heck were you last _in_ the prisoner pod bay?"

"I-" Allura’s face contorted into a wince of frustration. “Right, Excuse me! Shoe!”

With that, she ran – she didn’t walk – out of the med bay, leaving Lance alone with Keith’s pod.

 

* * *

 

Allura didn’t find her mysterious other other shoe, according to Pidge. She did, however, manage to bump into Shiro as he and the other Paladins had been on their way to the med bay, funnily enough. Even though the dorms were nowhere near the pod bay.

In any case, it looked like Lance’s suspicion about why neither Altean couldn't recognize him was correct, according to Hunk – while in Lance’s room, Coran had actually been incredibly horrified during The Shavening of Shiro, who seemed to miraculously transform from a crazy anonymous hobo to the Black Paladin with each swipe of the razor and snip of the shears. He had to excuse himself to go to his room to calm down from the terror of what he’d witnessed. Hunk even went to check on him for fear he was going into full-blown shock from the revelation.

Allura, for her part, had requested Shiro come with her to discuss with her what happened. She’d been incredibly upset about having attacked him, and not recognizing him from the get go. He did go with her, looking just as worried and upset, per Hunk’s observations. It was pretty clear that she was wanting to know what was going on with him – and also, what exactly had happened to Keith.

The detached metal arm had come with them.

“She’ll understand.” Lance mumbled. “I mean, half this stuff…there’s _no_ way Shiro did it. Even if he did shoot Keith.”

“Geez!” Hunk gulp as his fingers flew across the panel. “What the heck did the Galra do to him? This all looks super serious…they must have tortured him!”

“Hey, yo, don’t touch that.” Pidge shoved Hunk out of the way. “Allura took forever to figure it out, and we don’t want Keith popping out of the pod half-dead by accident because you pressed a random button or jiggled it or something, man.”

“…Yeah, but _you’re_ touching it!” Hunk protested. “How do you know what _you’re_ doing won’t cause the pod to turn off?”

“That’s because _I_ am connecting the pod’s schematics on Keith’s condition to my own system.” Pidge’s glasses flashed as she brought out a small tablet. “I want to see if I can crack what made Keith turn purple and if it’s normal for someone like him!”

“The thing does say he’s got…elevated...quintessence.” Lance’s eyes narrowed as he thought. “Actually, Pidge?”

“Yeah?”

“Can your computers and stuff figure out quintessence? Like, different types of quintessence?”

“I…probably could whip up a program to differentiate that kind of thing.” Pidge turned to look at him, her eyebrows squinting with interest and the ghost of a smile on her face. “You think I should be looking for a certain type of quintessence?”

“Iiiiiii…might be.”

“Perhaps…” Pidge’s eyes sparkled. “ _Blue_ quintessence?”

“Mmmmm…” Lance conspiratorially leaned towards Pidge. “Maybe!”

“Woah, woah, wait, what?” Hunk whipped his head around, quickly stepping between them. “We’re not looking for blue quintessence! We already know that stuff is dangerous, and Coran already said we’re leaving Helvicta—“

“We don’t _have_ to look for blue quintessence, Hunk.” Lance jerked his thumb towards Keith’s pod as he stood up. “If what I’m thinking is right, we’ve already got some of ‘the Blue’ on board.”

Slowly, Hunk’s head turned back to the pod, staring at Keith.

“You…oh no. No no no, you’re not—“

“Yeah…yeah!” Pidge adjusted her glasses. “That makes sense, right?! It’s like you said, Hunk, what the Suntala natives told you. Anyone who gets exposed to that stuff either dies, or something crazy bad happens to them that’s worse than death. What if that worse than death option is that they turn into a Galra? I mean, that would probably be a fate worse than death for most people.”

“…What if that’s what was happening to that Olkari?” Lance suddenly felt his throat tighten. “They were bathing in that stuff. Which I still don’t get, because why would anyone want to risk, you know, dying or looking Galra-y?”

“I mean…guys, these are all really good questions?” Hunk gulped. “But I don’t want to see us turning Keith into an experiment, just because he _might_ have been exposed to that stuff. We have no idea what's happened to him. We don’t even know when, or..or _how_ he could have been exposed since he disappeared!”

“…Yeah we do.” Pidge folded her fingers, glasses gleaming. Lance could almost hear the cogs turning in her brain; it was a bit scary when she went into science mode. “You know, the more I think about it, the more _stupid_ I feel that I didn’t see it before. Think about it, guys. Why did that ship Keith was on blow up to begin with?”

Lance’s eyes widened as his thoughts, once more, cast back to that fateful mission. Keith’s screams had been crackling through Lance’s ears, and then he stopped responding, and then—

“…The self-destruct protocol. The Helvicta Corsairs don't activate it unless the ship's in imminent danger..."

"...Or," Hunk slowly finished the sentence, his eyes widening as he followed where Lance was going. "The blue quintessence's been exposed to the ship's atmosphere." 

 _"It had_ to be...just having Keith on board wouldn't...are you _quiznak_ idding me!?”

Lance had almost completely forgotten. Just before they'd lost him, Keith had mentioned finding quintessence in the cargo bay of the junk ship. The palm of his hand met his face.

“Oh my _god_ , that idiot, that _moron_ —Keith got himself exposed to the blue quintessence on that ship!! Why didn’t we figure this out before!?”

“Because Keith could have been dead this whole time too?”

“Because we were too busy trying to not die because of pirates?”

“Uuuuuuugh!” The other hand went to his face. “He’s probably been like this _forever_! I am so going to get back at him for being such an idiot, I swear!”

Keith would never hear the end of his cat quips, he silently vowed.

“Well, wait.” Hunk blinked. “Actually, that makes no sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Pidge…” Hunk motioned to the panel. “If Keith was Galra like this, why would the Galra be _torturing_ him?”

“Maybe they recognized he was the Red Paladin?”

“Well, ok, but if that’s the case.” Hunk shrugged questioningly. “Why would he want to save the ship?”

“Because..."Pidge's expression became blank. "Um, he was on it…?”

“Ok, _yeah_ , but…I mean…” Hunk looked up, brows furrowed in thought. “If they knew he was part of Voltron he wouldn’t have access to the radio systems? I mean, if he _was_ tortured by them, why wouldn’t he ask for us to save just _him_ , instead of the ship? We know Keith well enough to know he's not going to save people who've attacked him, and we also know what Allura told us about the distress call. Why would _Keith_ want to _save_ the ship that did this all to him?”

Silence. Even Lance was quiet as he realized that, yes, he was there and Keith had specifically said the ship was filled with civilians. No mention of soldiers. No mention that he was hurt. And then there was something else he realized as he ruminated through what he remembered from the distress signal.

“…Kihlick.”

“Huh?”

“There was someone else on the call.” Lance’s mind cast himself back onto the bridge, hearing Keith’s panicked voice, then hearing the other voice. “Some creepy-sounding lady. She said, ’Kihlick, get away from that console right now’.”

“That…” Pidge and Hunk both looked back at the space cat’s prone body. “You don’t think—“

“I think,” Lance crossed his arms. “That Keith is gonna need to explain a few things to us when he finally wakes up.”

“He’d never.” Hunk’s voice took on a strain of panic. “Lance, seriously, I know you and him don’t always get along, but he’d _never_ —I mean, how could you even _say_ that he’d sell us—“

“Wh—dude, I wasn’t implying he _betrayed_ us!” Lance’s jaw slacked a bit at the accusation. “Galra or not, totally jealous of me or not,  _I_ know Keith wouldn’t do that! But something obviously went on with the ship, right? He wasn’t being called Paladin or prisoner or whatever, I'm pretty sure he was being called something else entirely. And besides, we all want to know what happened to him, right? And he’s the only one who knows what went on this whole time.”

“…If he’s willing to walk.” Hunk looked at Lance and Pidge, almost pleadingly. “Look, I don’t want to push him, ok? When he wakes up, I’m sure he’ll talk when he’s ready. If we start being jerks to him and asking him all this stuff…it’s not fair to him!”

“Fine,” Pidge cracked her knuckles. “But I’m still going to get my info on the blue quintessence from him, so he better be ready for that! Heck, I’m still going to monitor him while he’s in the pod at least, anyways.”

Lance felt an inexplicable pang of fear at those words, deep down. With a beep, Pidge clicked her tablet and disconnected from the med pod’s controls. A small, pleased smirk formed on her face as she swiped her finger upwards on her device’s interface.

“Oh yeah. Definitely going to be looking into this. This is going to be _good_.”

“Uh,” Lance gulped. “Just don’t dissect him, you know, _literally_ , ok?”

“No one’s dissecting anyone.”

That wasn’t Pidge responding. In fact, Lance realized as he looked towards the door, that sounded like Shi—

Oh. It was. His head was down as he walked in. The beard was gone, and so was the long hair. He hadn’t shaved an undercut into his hair; he was still in the black suit that Lance had picked him up in, his wrist wrapped up in bandages. Otherwise, he could see why Coran had freaked out. 

There was no sign of his Galra arm anywhere near him.

The atmosphere changed immediately as he proceeded. The chatter stopped immediately, and Lance felt himself watching the Black Paladin like a hawk. As if he’d disappear again. Not that he’d attack any of them. Surely he wouldn’t, now that his head was clear.

“We’re getting ready to leave this place.” His voice was quiet, flat, as he turned towards Keith’s pod. His eyes widened, his gaze faltered, and his tone became uncertain. “I…how is he?”

“He’ll be fine.” Pidge offered a hand to Shiro’s side. “He’s healing.”

“Good. I…” Shiro looked at her, swallowing hard. “ _Katie_ , I’m—”

The hand on Shiro’s hip turned into a sudden Pidge rocket, throwing her arms around him with an _oof_. Shiro certainly seemed taken aback by it – what, did he think _Pidge_ was really going to be mad at him? – but after a moment of surprise, he returned the favor, hugging her with his one arm but good and tight.

…Aw, heck. Hunk was going into the hug him, too. And Lance realized he himself was already halfway to the cuddle pile, arms spread. Hey, their leader needed it. Really needed it.

This wasn’t his fault. Even if he _did_ shoot Keith.

None of this was.

“Guys…”

The group hug lasted for quite some time. How long didn’t matter. All that could be heard in the room were Shiro’s deep, shaky breaths. Lance could have sworn that his shoulder - which, for a few ticks, Shiro’s head had leaned on – was slightly damper than before. He wouldn’t say anything about it, of course. Nor would Hunk, who se chest was also home to Shiro’s face for a little bit.

The moment would have probably lasted longer, had Allura’s voice on the ship’s comm systems not cut through it.

“Paladins. Please come to the bridge immediately.” There was a pause, before she spoke again. “Its urgent. We’re…we’re being hailed by the Galra ship.”


	8. Kalkış

Lance was not the first to get to the bridge after Allura called them. Strangely enough. Surely he should have been because he had the longest legs of the group and had been running. Apparently not, though. Pidge had practically zipped out of the med bay, and was behind Allura by the time Lance arrived. Coran was there, as well, though he still looked pale and in shock in his chair.

Shiro was last to arrive, after Hunk. Lance watched as Coran’s eyes widened, bringing his finger to his mouth. Yup, still in shock about Shiro’s beard.

“Oh, forgive me, Number One, I’m still just so surprised about all this… hair business.”

“Its ok.” Shiro rubbed his chin. “I get it.”

“So.” Lance, on his end, simply frowned. “The Ear Worm still hailing us?”

“They are.” The princess took a deep breath. “I wanted to ensure that everyone was here before I made a move. I can only hope that they don’t intend anything underhanded even after we saved them.”

“You think it could be a trap?” Hunk licked his lips. “After all we went through?”

“…I don’t know.” Allura’s fingers delicately braced the sides of her dress. “There’s only one way to find out what their intentions are.”

With that, she pressed the panel, opening up communications. Like before, there was no visuals, only sound. Lance felt himself tense up as there was a brief crackle of waves on the screen, screen glowing quietly.

“…This is Princess Allura of the Castle of Lions.” Allura kept her composure as the silence continued. “We are responding to your hail. Are you there?”

“ **……..is—hat…** ” Oh, there was a voice. It sounded female, but nothing like the one from the distress call. “ **—ot it! Fixed it! _Bwa_ haha!**”

“ **Thank you, Sarışın. I’ll now try again.** ” A deep-voiced male cleared their throat. “ **This is Admiral Otac of the GESS Irem. Please acknowledge that you are receiving us.** ”

“I…” Allura looked over at the Paladins, before looking back at the screen. “Yes, I…acknowledge, Admiral? This is Princess Allura of the Castle of Lions.”

“ **There we are. I’ll take it from here, Sarışın. We have contact.** ”

“Yes.” Lance could feel wariness radiating off her despite her outward demeanor. In the end, it was still a Galra unknown to her, and a high-ranking officer to boot. “And to what do we owe this communication?”

“ **I assure you it’s nothing severe.** ” A deep breath. “ **I must admit that this hailing - really this situation – is all very unusual, given your status as the enemy of the Galra Empire and the current state of conflict we are…meant to have with one another. However, I call because I wish to inquire about the status of a specific individual. He was my newest midshipman, after all. A member of my crew here.** ”

“Your...midshipman?” Allura blinked. If this was somehow a trap to get into the Castle, Lance knew it was a plan that was really dumb. “With all due respect, I was unaware we had a member of your crew on board.”

“ **Indeed. Mishipman Kılıç. I believe you might know him by a different name.** ”

“Ki—“

Lance, Pidge, and Hunk all looked at one another, eyes widened. Midshipman. Kihlick was a _ranked_ member of the Galra military.

 _Then._ Lance drew in a breath. Things were making more and more sense as the seconds went by. Sort of. _If I’m right about who Kihlick is…_

“He’s…” Hunk took a deep breath. “He’s not talking about _Keith_ , is he?”

“He is, I'm afraid.” It was Shiro who quietly answered them, before turning to the screen. “He’s…he had passed out. But Keith’s recovering from his injuries, Admiral.”

“ **Good. He was quite—** “

“ **Hey! Hold on a _dakika_!** ” The female voice suddenly spoke, sounding annoyed, if not mad. “ **I know that voice! Is that the crazy creaming hairless guy that shot half our crew!?** ”

Shiro’s eyes widened, his face turning ashen.

“I…”

“ **Sarışın.** ”

“ **It _is_ you, isn’t it!? Shiro, that’s the name, right!? That's what Kılıç said it was!** ” Lance felt the blood drain from his own face when he heard the rasping woman voice say their friend’s name. “ **Otac! Tell him next time I see him, I’m going to rip out the arm he still has and then use it to smack him right in the—** “

“ ** _Commander._** ” The admiral’s voice sharpened. “ **Stand down.** ”

“ **Whaaat!?** ” There was a slight whine in the other’s voice. “ **Come on, I wasn’t going to kill him! You know me better, you know I promised Kılıç I wouldn’t kill him if I ever saw him again! I’m just going to—** ”

“ **Now is not the time.** ” The sharpness lessened in the tone, but the firmness remained. “ **Voltron saved our lives, and we are thus at their mercy. I would prefer to not strain it in our tenuous position.** ”

“ **All right, all right, I get it, Otac! I’ll keep my mouth shut.** ”

Lance could hear her unintelligible grumbling as she ostensibly stepped away from the communicator, nevertheless.

“Geez!” Lance turned to the Black Paladin, eyes wide. “Shiro, buddy, I’m sure they don’t really mean…uh…all that…”

Shiro didn’t respond, staring down at the ground instead, as if finding the floor incredibly amazing all of a sudden. Pidge ad Hunk, meanwhile, both looked ready to jump in their Lions and gang up on whoever was threatening their leader. _Hoo_ boy. Not good.

“Admiral.” _Oh good, go Allura. Use Diplomacy and hope its super-effective!_ “I take it that your subordinate’s… _colorful_ ultimatums aren’t the other reason you called, aside from inquiring about your…er, midshipman’s condition.”

“ **It is not.** ” There is a softness in the other’s voice as he continued. “ **You will have to forgive Commander Sarışın. She has been with me for some time, and is quite protective of my crew. The situation with the pirates on board was…stressful for everyone.** ”

He was probably understating, especially if Keith’s condition was anything to go by.

“ **I hailed you,** ” The Galra continued, “ **To also request, if I may, that you convey my thanks to Keith Kogane. For his aid in saving the ship from the Helvicta Corsairs, before we resume our cruise. We will be restoring our bridge encryptions once we are ready to depart this system in several _saat_ , and will not be engaging in any further outside communications, save with other Imperial ships.**”

“Well, wait.” Lance blinked. “Why _were_ the pirates attacking you to begin with? Did you come here by accident?”

“Indeed.” Allura crossed her arms. “We’ve noticed this sector of space has a great deal of Galra technology present, even though the Helvicta apparently control it. Perhaps you can shed some light on what exactly was going on here?”

“ **…I’m not at liberty to discuss the reasons for our presence here, or about any operations the Helvicta Corsairs were engaged in.** ” _Hmmmmmm. Interesting._ “ **I would suggest not looking too much further into the matter, in any case. There’s not much left to be had, now. Any pertinent intelligence from the outlaw ships you engaged in is either destroyed by the Lions, or is being remotely and simultaneously transferred and wiped as we speak by my own men.** ”

“Figures.” Lance huffed. Still. “But you know we’ll ask Keith about all this, right?”

“ **Revealing sensitive intelligence to outside parties is punishable by death if he does, as befitting a ranked member of the military corps.** ” A pause. “ **Then again, it appears…oh my. A glitch has suddenly overtaken my console. Commander, you wouldn’t happen to know where Midshipman Kılıç’s records have gone to?** ”

“ **Wh—** “ A third voice suddenly echoed on the screen. It sounded like someone Lance’s age. “ **Admiral, I don’t know what you’re talking about! Any official Processing records we have for our crew members should be right there on the screen!** ”

“ **Very strange.** ” Lance heard that raspy woman chuffle at the interaction, this time far off in the distance. “ **I could have sworn I just saw them. Now they’re gone. Like…they never even existed. Like _he_ never existed.**”

_Wh-what are they doing over there? Why is crazy Galra lady laughing?!_

“ **Kılıç? Who’s Kılıç??** ” The mock shock practically oozed from the far-away crazy Galra lady voice. “ **I mean, maybe it was that one random guy who spontaneously combusted in the cargo bay?! Darn if I know! _Bw_ ahaha!**”

“…Spontaneously combusted??” Pidge sputtered as Hunk slowly repeated what was just said. “Th—that’s a thing Galra can do?! Coran...?”

“U—I…I don’t know!” Coran, who’d been quiet the entire time, simply stared at the screen, wide-eyed. “I mean, Galra have a higher base temperature than humans or Alteans, but there’s been no recorded mention that I’m aware of—!”

“ **…I told you, we’re not telling the crew the he _exploded_ , Sarışın.**” Lance could almost imagine the eye roll from the young guy. If Galra could roll their eyes. Can they? “ **No one would ever believe us, let alone Ağla!** ”

“ **But!** ” A small snorting sound came from Allura. They, a Galra military ship, were seriously having this conversation while talking within earshot to Voltron. “ **What…if I said he exploded because all the corsairs left on the ship shot him at the same time? Heretics can do that, just imagine a big Kılıç-shaped puddle—** ” 

“ **We’ll…discuss this later. _Privately_ , commanders.**” The admiral’s voice finally cut through the argument. “ **But it appears I may have been mistaken about Midshipman Kılıç being a member of this ship. Or having a presence anywhere in the Galra Empire.** ”

“I…” Allura coughed and recomposed herself, nodding even though the other obviously couldn’t see it. “Your discretion on this matter is truly appreciated, Admiral.”

“ **As would yours be, as well. I also trust you would not use whatever you may have learned against our people, and we shall do the same.** ” Lance couldn’t help but feel…slightly bad as the admiral said that. It was pretty clear that just talking to Voltron was a risk for the other ship. A ship that was much more keen on getting out of Dodge City than pursuing victory or death against the Lions. “ **It would not be safe for anyone.** ”

“…Of course.” Allura closed her eyes, sighing. “It will be as if our ships never crossed paths, Admiral. You have my word.”

Except that they had crossed paths, and everyone in the room and on the screen knew it. Lance looked down, at this.

“Hey, uh, Admiral?” Hunk spoke up, at this. “…Thanks.”

“ **…And to you, Paladins, and Princess Allura.** ” There was a tone of finality in the voice on the other end. Towards them? Who knew. Lance wondered why the Admiral suddenly sounded so tired. Right then, instead of at any point beforehand. “ **Vrepit sa, Voltron.** ”

“Ah—?!”

Without a further word, the transmission cut off. When Allura and Coran attempted to re-connect, there was no response.

 

* * *

 

Lance went back to the med bay after every attempt to reconnect to the Ear Worm failed, with no response no matter how Pidge adjusted the commhack. When the Ear Worm said they were going off the grid and wouldn’t respond, they had meant it. It was as if the ship no longer existed, and there was no doubt, given how fast it had occured, that this wasn't the first time the Admiral had cloaked their presence from the universe at large.

Why? Maybe Keith knew. Not that Keith was able to actually say anything, Lance glumly thought.

He noticed that the suit Keith had been wearing was gone from where Allura had draped it. Probably shot out into space by that point. It was probably for the best, to not have that albatross around when Keith woke up.

Even if, apparently, Keith had been a hero on that ship. The ship that had injured him, nearly killed him. The ship whose leader had personally inquired about Keith’s health, out of what looked to be genuine concern.

_Convey my thanks to Keith Kogane._

The military ship the _midshipman_  had been tried to save, by calling its crew civilians.

 _What happened to you?_ Lance stared at the prone Galra figure within. _What did you do on that ship? What did you do when you were…Kihlick?_

He didn’t even hear anyone else coming in as his mind went back. Back to when Keith disappeared. The long months of…of trying to do what the two people now back should have been doing…of doubti—

“Lance?” He was instantly on turning around, finding himself facing Shiro. “It’s almost 4 am by Garrsion reckoning now. You’re still up?”

“…Could say the same for you, staying up after everything you went through.” And there we go. Back to being not the leader again. “I’m just basking in the glory of Keith finally being…you know, sent to a pod…after all this time of being so perfectly unscathed and all…!”

He trailed off, letting out a grunt.

“…I have so many questions.”

Lance’s eyes turned slowly towards Shiro. He probably looked upset, didn’t he? Well, he couldn’t help feeling just a little upset. It had been six months. Six. Months. Obviously telling Shiro that point blank right then was a bad idea, but on the other hand, what happened?

 _Why?_ Why did it happen? What exactly did Shiro know?

“You really don’t remember what happened after Zarkon’s battle?” His question might have sounded more like a challenge, but right at that second, he didn’t care. It always just seemed like every time Shiro disappeared, he'd be gone, and then when he returned, there were gaps and holes that would never be filled. Questions that would never be answered. “Like, at all?”

“…No.” A shadow of worry crossed Shiro’s face. “I really don’t. I wish I did, I seriously can;t. I…not even my Lion can really explain what happened after I disappeared, just an idea. Or…how I ended up where I did.”

“Figures,” Lance mumbled. “That’s it, I’m going to ask Pidge to put a GPS in your nose scar or something.”

“…I don’t think that GPS works that way.”

“Fine, a BLIP or whatever!” Lance crossed his arms, huffing. “Shiro, dude, you can’t just keep…abruptly disappearing for stretches of time! Especially now!”

“…I know that.” Shiro’s tone was strained. “Don’t you think I know that, Lance?”

Lance didn’t respond. Of course Shiro knew that. He had to hate it as much as everyone in the Castle right then did. Probably more.

“…We need a way to keep an eye on you, nevertheless.” Lance swallowed. “We…we can’t lose you again. We can’t keep getting broken apart because you…you or Keith keep _leaving_!”

Then, before he realized what he was saying.

“We’re not all _leaders_ like you guys! I’m not—!”

His hand went over his mouth, but he could tell it was too late. It came out. Shiro’s eyes widened at the words. Even his Blue Lion was silent and the outburst.

It had come out. Just like that.

“…Lance.” After a long silence, Shiro stepped forward, closing the distance between them. His voice was low as he spoke. “Don’t ever say that about yourself. _Ever_ again. We were rescued because of your leadership. The Castle of Lions is here because of you. Keith is here because of you.”

Lance’s breath shook, and he found himself not able to look Shiro in the eyes. Speaking like he was back in control so easily. Was it really easy for someone like him, or Keith, to slip back into that role?

“I just…” Lance looked back at Keith. “If I was anything like you guys…I would’ve found you sooner.”

“You’re right. You’re not like us.”

Lance shut his eyes. Exactly what he thought _someone_ on the team would finally—

“And we’re not like you. That’s why you’re here.” Shiro’s voice is quiet, as Lance felt him come closer again. “You are who you are. You’re what you are. You what you are is Lance. You’re the Blue Paladin. And you’re the Blue Paladin because there’s no one else in the universe like you, no matter what you’re thinking right now.”

Lance opened his eyes.

“You have no equal, Lance. Whether you’re the leader of Voltron right now or not. You _are_ a leader. That’s why you were chosen.”

His eyes widened, and he turned to face Shiro. He’d heard those words before. He just never expected anyone else to say them. To confirm them.

A very satisfied – and slightly smug – purr trilled in his ears at this.

“…Heh.” Then Shiro shook his head. “I get it, though. It’s hard to convince yourself of that. That you’re actually here for something other than a big fat cosmic joke. Not when you feel like you keep…messing up. I know how that feels.”

Lance saw him look at Keith again, and his jaw tightened. Well, then.

“…Even if you can somehow convince me otherwise,” he mumbled. “I’m guessing _I’m_ not going to convince _you_ otherwise, either, am I?”

A small, sad smile passed on Shiro’s lips, before disappearing, leaving Shiro as just looking sad.

“…Thought not.”

Lance sighed. He decided to make a mental note to tell Coran that Allura should consider getting a space therapist for the Castle in the future. Preferably someone who knew something about humans. If those existed outside of Earth. It was possible, right?

“So…” Shiro paused, then continued. “Allura and I talked. She asked me to her rooms while she was working on something.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” There was some confusion and worry in Shiro’s tone as he continued. “After I…told her everything. She’s planning on…she received a message about some kind of diplomatic snag a few vargas ago. I don’t know the details yet, but she’s told me it’s…not good.”

“Is it an emergency?”

“Looks like it. She’s leaving the Castle tomorrow and she’s not sure how long she’ll be gone.”

“Oh.” Lance shrugged. “Ok, then. I mean, we can hold our own here, but at least we know now, right? You know when she—”

“She wants me to accompany her. In the Black Lion.”

Shiro didn’t sound particularly happy about it. Upon hearing it, Lance wasn’t feeling happy either.

“Wait, she…seriously?” Lance grit his teeth. “You just got back, and after everything…I mean, your arm, and Keith, and…have you even _talked_ to your Lion since you got back here!?”

That might have been a growl coming out of Lance’ mouth just then. He could swear he saw Shiro flinch at the anger in his throat.

“What the _heck_ is Allura thinking?!”

“I don’t know.” Shiro kept staring at Keith. “But…I can’t say no.”

“ _Why not_?!”

“She won’t let me.” There was a shaky lilt in his voice. “I _told_ her it was a bad idea, but she told me it _had_ to be me. She even said, when I asked, that she would not even _consider_ asking anyone else to accompany her. Just me.”

This was a bad idea. This was a really bad idea. Really, _really_ bad. They’d just gotten Shiro back, he was injured with his Galra arm detached, and Keith… _Keith_ was...

Lance could see that Shiro was thinking the same thing. He just got back. How would it look? How would everyone feel about him just...up and leaving? How would _Keith_ feel? His hand was on his stump of a shoulder, and his eyes still didn’t leave Keith. It was weird. And worrying.

What was Allura doing? How important was this emergency that Allura didn’t even tell the other Paladins about it before springing it on Shiro?

“…Don’t worry, man.” Lance side, rubbing his eyes. “I’m sure Allura won’t let you out of her sight and…you’ll be back before Keith wakes up, I bet.”

He wasn’t sure he or Shiro believed that. Though at Lance's words, Shiro still smiled. Just a small bit. Just enough to hope it would be true.

“Yeah.” He closed his eyes. “I’ll definitely come back to you guys, this time.”

There was, in that moment, the Shiro that Lance knew as their leader. In that moment, Lance felt a little better about the abruptness of this new situation.  Not much better, but enough not to go straight to the princess to complain.

Yet.

“I promise.”

Lance’s hand came onto his shoulder stump, and squeezed.

“Good. You better,” he warned. “Or else the next time you’re in a pod you’re going to regret it.”

Shiro may have been his leader and his friend, but that didn’t mean he was immune to smelling the Space Broccoli Farts of Doom if he broke his word.

 

* * *

 

Lance fell asleep on the med bay couch, soon after that. He hadn’t even realized it, or that he had been so exhausted from that happened. When he woke up, several vargas later, he realized a blanket had been put over him. When he asked Coran about it, he responded that the only person who had been in the Med Bay while Lance had been there had been Shiro. It turned out the blanket had also come from Shiro’s room.

Pidge and Hunk were making breakfast when he shuffled in. They looked as somber as Lance felt. They had woken up, and found Shiro waiting for them in the hangar. Allura had wanted to leave as soon as possible, but he’d insisted on waiting until they’d shown up first, so he could talk to them both.

So they knew, at least. Even if they weren’t entirely happy about it, and that Shiro was just as in the dark about where he was going and what he was going to be doing as anyone else was.

Allura and Shiro, as he had suspected – and in his own way, feared – were gone.


	9. Epilogue: Istifa

That night, Lance was back in the med bay on pod watch, staring at Keith. He looked better. Not _much_ better, but he wasn’t grey or otherwise quite so death-y looking anymore. His tail (Lance seriously couldn’t believe he had a _tail_ ) was broken, but on the way to recovery. The bruises in his ribs, his spine, and his head and neck were also being healed at a good pace - faster than a human would in the pod, at least. Something was up with his eyes and ears, but the pod wasn’t doing anything about them.

(The heck was ‘auricular shrinkage’? Did he _want_ to know?...)

The wound on his leg was healing, as well, though it wasn’t optimal. That had been the most worrying and extreme injury. The gun Shiro had used – whatever it had been, as Shiro had lost it before they’d escaped, but it was probably those weird guns the Helvicta Corsairs liked using – had been but strong, and ripped right through. He’d been lucky Shiro had shot where he had, or Keith would have been dead and things would have been way, _way_ worse overall.

As it was, the med pod panel indicated his injured leg would likely be shorter by a quarter-inch at most as compensation for the healing done to it. It was possible he’d have a gnarly scar on both sides as well.

“…Man.” Lance stared. “You really scared us, you know that? Both of you. You especially. You just...ran off without warning. We though you might have died when that ship exploded.”

Keith wasn’t responding, naturally. It was fine.

“Seriously. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to find you! I was actually the leader of Voltron.” Lance’s eyes narrowed as he leaned in. “Yeah, you hear me? You caused _me_ to be the leader and…”

He trailed off. Took a breath.

“I did ok. I did me. I did me and we were good. We beat the pirates you got us tangled up in. We got some cool new tech to help us against the Galra Empire if they try anything. Allura was happy that I was there to pick up the slack you guys left." He nodded as he poked his finger onto the glass. "Even Shiro complimented me on doing good. _Shiro!_ Yeah, you heard me right. He said I was a leader in my own right.”

And of course Keith couldn’t hear him. Well, actually, he wasn’t sure about that. Maybe he could, like people in a coma. Lance didn’t remember people talking to him when he was in the pod, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible, right?

If Keith _could_ hear him, then that was perfect, because Keith couldn’t go anywhere so Lance could talk and talk about how actually he held the team together for longer than it took to beat up Zarkon, and Galra Boy couldn’t do diddly squat to leave while he was bragging. Heck, he was leader for longer than Shiro! That was...terrifying to think about not that he realized it!

…and he actually did just fine. Which was both terrifying and good.

“You’re super lucky you’re in your pod, because I think your head will need to heal from when it explodes from that revelation. Still, I…I’m glad you’re back.” Lance’s lips twitched into a smile. “I’ll totally deny it but I am. I may have been a leader, and…maybe I don’t have an equal in the universe.”

He crossed his arms, stepping back.

“But I’m fine with going back to normal, too. I’m glad you and Shiro…” Lance’s smile faltered. “Well, whenever he gets back from whatever Allura’s decided he needed to go with her on. He’s ok, though. Sort of. His arm’s still detached. And he’s got that gash on his hand? But he’s ok otherwise! And he'll totally be back. I made sure to set him straight on what would happen if he ever disappeared again.”

Silence.

“…Point is, I…” His arms uncrossed, and his fist pressed gently against the glass of the pod. “I’m just glad you’re ok. I’m glad I know if this ever…happens again, which by the way it had _better not_! Seriously, I will not be happy if this happens again!...I’ll be able to do this. And I hope you and Shiro will still be proud of me.”

With that, he turned to leave the med bay. He’d probably never be able to tell this to Keith face to face. That was fine. He’d let Keith see what he did and let his actions speak for themselves when he woke up. Not if. When. He’d be out of the pod. He'd get better.

And Lance would be there, and if not there he’d come right over, ready to make fun of Keith looking like a Galra. And he was fine with that, too.

“…Oh, and…one more thing.”

What followed was loud and deep, like the horrifying combination of a duck honk and a raspberry being blown, before tapering off into a long, feculent squeak.

“Ha…consider this my Voltron leader retirement announcement. Smell you later, Cat Man.”

Like he’d do it to Keith and actually put that in his pod when he was as injured as he was, after all. But he still deserved it in the face. Shiro had a pass this time because who knew what happened with Zarkon, and he knew next time what would happen if he did it again. Keith? Keith was gone for _five months_ and left _him_ in charge because he stupidly walked into a deadly situation without thinking twice. 

Speaking of which.

With a pleased smile on his face, he opened the med bay doors.

“Your turn to take watch, Gunderson! I'm going to bed.”

“Ok, thanks." Pidge trudged in, yawning. "Get some sleep, I’ve got my system connected in case we have an alarm.”

“Will do! Later.”

As she entered the med bay, Lance’s pace began to quicken. He knew there’d be a reaction in five, four, three, two…

“ ** _LANCE!! YOU_ QUIZNAK _ING JERK, DID YOU EAT THAT WEIRD SPACE BROCOLLI AGAIN?! GET BACK HERE-!_** ”

He broke into a run, making towards his room. 

_Definitely worth it._

 

**-SON-**


End file.
